ABSTRACT
Throughout the years following the end of World War Two, both Soviet involvement in foreign policy and the degree of the Soviet Union's international interdependence have been growing continuously. Besides, its top functionaries let it be known at every turn that they see themselves as a genuine world power, by no means second-rate relative to the US. Nonetheless, the bulk of the important switches in the central directing organs of the USSR continue to be thrown in accordance with the "primacy of domestic politics."
