The face that the Soviet Union presents to the world today is
both threatening and enigmatic. A frightening number of nations
have already yielded to Soviet pressure, and many more are now
engaged in a conflict with Communist infiltration, subversion, and
outright attack. In an age when nations are seeking to understand
one another and to work out their problems in the interest of world
harmony and mutual assistance, international attention is drawn to
the expansionist policies of the U.S.S.R.

The fact is that modern Russian history is a more or less con-
sistent record of territorial expansion. The Janus-face of the Soviet
Union is not new to students of history. And the countries which
border Russia--the giant which sprouted from the seed planted by
the minuscule state of Muscovy--have confronted it since the time
of Ivan the Terrible.

Now that the whole world has this face to confront, the time
seems particularly appropriate to examine the record of Russia's past
activities in relation to certain bordering states, and to analyze her
ambitions, her goals, and her tactics. The task is undertaken in the
hope of casting light on the present and future objectives of the
Soviet Union, and perhaps on her methods of dealing with her
problems.

A single study, however, can treat of only a small portion of this
history in the detail that such a work demands. The purpose of the
present book, therefore, is to bring under close scrutiny that part of
Russian diplomacy, pre-Revolutionary and Soviet, involved in the
dealings with Manchuria and Outer Mongolia during the two dec-
ades between the Chinese Revolution of 1911 and the Japanese attack
on Manchuria in 1931.

In the period under consideration, Russian-Soviet policy in Man-

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