Christine A. White - British and American Commercial Relations with Soviet Russia, 1918-1924

1992 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data White, Christine A.
British and American Commercial relations with Soviet Russia, 19181924/by Christine A. White,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8078-6639-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Soviet UnionCommerceGreat BritainHistory.
2. Great BritainCommerceSoviet UnionHistory.
3. Soviet UnionCommerceUnited StatesHistory.
4. United StatesCommerceSoviet UnionHistory.
5. Soviet UnionHistoryRevolution, 19171921. I. Title.
HF 3628.G7W46 1993 92-301
382.0941047dc20 CIP

Publication of this book was aided by a subvention from Pennsylvania State University.

I n the preparation of this book, I have had the good fortune to be allowed to work in a number of public and private archives and libraries. Many thanks are due to the tireless archivists, librarians, and staff of the Public Record Office and the British Museum in London; the National Archives and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; the Library of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London; the Library of Political and Economic Science, London; Cambridge University Library; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Slavonic Library at Helsinki University; the Butler Memorial Library at Columbia University; and the New York Public Library. I owe a special debt to Mr. David Crippen of the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn; Mr. Edward Green of Midland Bank; Mr. Daniel Hartgrove of the National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Mr. Michael Jacobson, Dr. Elena Danielson, and Dr. Carol Leadenham of the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California; Mr. Leo Van Rossum of the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam; and Mr. G. J. Bawcutt of Kodak, Ltd., all who patiently endured my endless questions and provided me with valuable help and insight. I am also grateful to Mr. H. E. Scrope of Vickers, Ltd., who very kindly gave me permission to consult the Vickers Company archives before they were turned over to the Cambridge University Library. A collectivebut no less heartfeltthanks is due to the many other archivists, curators, and librarians of collections to which I was given access. A complete listing and citation of all archives and collections can be found in the bibliography.

Unfortunately, during the time which I was conducting research for this book Soviet archives had not yet been made generally available to Western scholars. I have attempted to counter this shortcoming by making use of Russian and Soviet collections, both published and manuscript, that exist outside of the USSR.

Over the years I have had the pleasure of the support and encouragement of a number of people. My greatest debt is owed to my supervisor, teacher, and friend, Mr. R. C. Trebilcock, whose patience and faith gave me the courage to go on. Both he and his former student, Geoffrey Jones, unselfishly shared their ideas and criticisms and provided me with intellectual sustenance and moral support when I needed it most, and on numerous occasions suffered my rantings with the good humor I could have expected only from friends. Richard Davenport-Hines gave needed advice and criticism; Alfred Rieber, Olga Crisp, and Barry Supple read early drafts of this manuscript and their comments were invaluable. The preparation of this manuscript would have been considerably more difficult had it not been for the tireless efforts of Lewis Bateman, Ron Maner, and Brian MacDonald of the University of North Carolina Press. Finally, my deepest gratitude and affection to my husband, Stephen Mackwell, who patiently read and critiqued each chapter, and without whose computer wizardry I would still be scribbling on paper with pencil.

The U.S. Board of Geographic Names system for transliterating Russian Cyrillic was employed in this work.

Needless to say, I alone am responsible for the interpretations, conclusions, and errors contained herein.

T his study deals with the development of Soviet economic and commercial relations with Britain and the United States from 1918 to 1924the period prior to the rapid expansion of imports into the Soviet Union that immediately preceded the First Five Year Plan. Although the economic activity during the period immediately after the Bolshevik revolution was not as remarkable as the progress made under the First Five Year Plan, it was, nonetheless, significant in its own right. In addition to the expenditure of considerable sums of money in connection with the Allied intervention in Russia and the support of the various counterrevolutionary groups, both Britain and the United States also evinced a substantial interest in reviving and capturing what was perceived as a lucrative postwar market. This perception of RussiaBolshevik or otherwiseas an eldorado stubbornly persisted in governmental as well as private business circles well into the 1930s. The trade and economic relations during this very early period did much to promote that belief.

At first glance, resources for the study of Soviet Russia during this period seem sparse, and the accuracy of existing economic data is often questionable. The conditions of civil war, intervention, and blockade, along with a predisposition to find the Bolsheviks loathsome, could not but help to color foreign observations. The relative absence of official representation of the Allied governments in Soviet Russia during this period also tended to produce infrequent and erroneous intelligence reports. Even so, through an examination of the vast amount of available material, it is possible to reassess the volume and value of immediate postrevolutionary Russian trade with Great Britain and the United States.

Nonetheless, it is difficult to establish with any accuracy the volume and value of this trade. With an essentially nonidentifiable gross national product (GNP) between 1918 and 1924, the conventional method of linking GNP with national imports and exports is not a useful one in analyzing the Soviet economy under War Communism and the first years of the New Economic Policy. One is therefore faced with the task of defining an alternative measure for determining trade levels. A defensible standard against which early Bolshevik commercial activity might be measured is provided by a comparison of the prewar and postwar trade statistics. Thus, returns for 1913 can be used as a yardstick for the assessment of postrevolutionary trade. The use of these data for such comparative purposes is commonly accepted. Quite simply, 1913 provides the last full year of prewar commercial conditions (although it can be argued that it represented a prewar peak in tsarist trading activity), while at the same time providing a relatively comprehensive set of fairly reliable data. Further, by comparing the level of Russian-bound exports from the United States and Great Britain as a percentage of the total exports from each country for both periods, one may obtain a better idea of the overall importance of that trade for these major economies. A similar comparison of Russian exports to those countries would also be enlighteningespecially in the case of Great Britain.