Oil Trade of the USSR with the Baltic States and Finland in the 1920s–1930s

Abstract

The article analyzes the Soviet strategy of exporting petroleum products in the 1920s and1930s, the purpose of which was initially to obtain a monopoly position in the markets of the Baltic States and Finland. Exports of kerosene, gasoline, and fuel oil (crude oil accounted for an insignificant share of exports) was one of the main sources of currency for the Soviet economy. In contrast to timber exports, the Soviet foreign policy Department (People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs) was actually excluded from participating in the solution of related issues. Oil exports were considered by the Soviet diplomacy as tool for achieving foreign policy goals. Attempts to “conquer” the market of oil products in the Baltics and Finland faced objective obstacles in the early 1930s: the policy of industrialization led to sharp growth in domestic needs for oil, while changes in the foreign policy orientation of the Baltic States and state regulation of import operations promoted pushing out Soviet oil exports. As a result, in the second half of the 1930s the USSR abandoned its previous ambitious plans.