Коммунизм взаймы: советские планы импорта западного оборудования в кредит (конец 1950-х – середина 1960-х гг.)

Cahiers d'histoire russe, est-européenne, caucasienne et centrasiatique (ex. Cahiers du Monde Russe). 2025. Т. 66. № 3. С. 463–488.

Popov A.

The article examines the processes of planning and implementation of imports of Western equipment on commercial credit terms during the reign of N.S. Khrushchev. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of the conditions, motives and consequences of the use of foreign currency borrowings in the context of the plans of the country's leadership to modernise the Soviet economy through the development of chemical industries. On the basis of previously unpublished materials of the Russian State Archive of Economics, it is shown that in the early 1960s, the idea of borrowing to finance the new industrialisation emerged as part of the strategy of expanding trade turnover promoted by the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Although the strategy had influential opponents in the government and the State Planning Committee, it was implemented, in part due to a favourable combination of economic factors: export dynamics, structural adjustment of the world economy and opportunities for expanding trade with Western companies. The implementation of this strategy largely determined the possibilities and limitations of imports at the expense of oil and gas revenues in subsequent periods of Soviet history.

Keywords: внешняя торговля, foreign trade, international loans, международные кредиты, the Soviet economy, Cold War, Khrushchev policy, Холодная война, Н.С. Хрущев, экономика СССР

Publication based on the results of: Institutions, human capital and regional Development: historical analysis and contemporary challenges (2025)