I was in tutorial today and we were talking about mercantilism and also Lenin's criticism of Capitalism. It made me wonder whether the USSR did any trading with other countries. Did they trade with currency or barter?
Hello!
A similar question to this one was asked by one of moderators, /u/bitparity a week or so ago. I provided an answer there, along with others concerning trade with the Soviet Union, and how integrated they were. This is not to discourage any discussion here, however.
Hope this helps.
JSC Amtorg Trading Corporation (Amtorg - Амторг short for Американская торговля, literally American trading) was established in New York State in 1924 and was used as import and export firm seeking foreign trade in US (as there was no recognition between USA and USSR and permanent Soviet embassy yet).
For example, Amtorg bought two M1931 Christie tanks at a total cost of $60,000 US (tanks were documented as agricultural farm tractors and shipped without turrets). In USSR improved M1931 design became BT series tank (BT-2, BT-5, BT-7, BT-7M and BT-7A) and inspired design of A-20 and A-34 (T-34 prototype).
But besides those military-oriented (and borderline illegal deals) Amtorg conducted many other contracts (buying complex machinery, hiring engineers etc).
In 1930 Amtorg and Albert Kahn, Inc signed $2 billion US deal to build more than 500 factories in USSR (for instance - tractor plants in Stalingrad, Chelyabinsk, Kharkov, motor works in Moscow and Gorky etc - full list was never disclosed by either side).