TRADE AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS BETWEEN SOVIET UKRAINE AND GERMANY (EARLY 1920s)

Abstract

The article examines the establishment and development of trade and economic relations between Soviet Ukraine and Germany in the early 1920s. It is reported that at that time Germany refused to officially recognize Soviet Ukraine and establish diplomatic relations with it. Therefore, the Ukrainian People’s Commissar set the goal of establishing trade and economic relations with Germany. It is noted that Soviet Ukraine relied on German industrial goods and the market for Ukrainian raw materials.

Since 1921, individual trade matters between Soviet Ukraine and Germany were handled by their repatriation commissioners. Later, the Ukrainian People’s Commissar proposed to the German government to conclude a trade agreement. As a result of lengthy negotiations, on April 8, 1922, a “Protocol on the Exchange of Trade Representatives” was concluded between Germany and Soviet Ukraine. It was found out that Yu. Novakovsky was appointed as the trade representative of Soviet Ukraine in Germany. Z. Gay became the trade representative of Germany in Soviet Ukraine.

It has been established that the trade mission operated as a “central cash desk for Ukrainian trade missions abroad”, and the trade representative of Soviet Ukraine in Germany simultaneously performed the duties of the “Trade Representative of the Ukrainian SSR Abroad”. This is due to the role of the German city of Hamburg as a port with warehouses, a stock exchange, a freight center, and exchange offices.

It has been analyzed that in trade between Soviet Ukraine and Germany in the early 1920s, preference was given to the establishment of Ukrainian-German “mixed companies”. It was these companies that acted as intermediaries in trade with German companies and firms. For Soviet Ukraine, they bought German industrial goods. They exported Ukrainian raw materials to Germany. It is noteworthy that in 1922, during the famine, Soviet Ukraine paid special attention to the purchase of seeds. The following year, Soviet Ukraine was already selling grain crops on the Hamburg market.

It is indicated that with the formation of the USSR, the activities of the trade mission of the Ukrainian SSR in Germany were curtailed during 1923. To ensure the republic's trade interests, a representative of the Ukrainian SSR was to be included in the composition of the USSR trade mission in Germany.