Stalin, Grain Exports, and Soviet Debt

• In Event: The Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and Global Grain Markets

Abstract

The paper highlights the significance of Stalin's grain exports for Stalin’s rule in the face of severe shortages at home and a glut on international grain markets. Collectivization allowed the regime to vastly increase the amount of grain it exported to the level of 1914, sparking fears among Western observers that the Soviet Union had re-emerged as one of the world's leading agricultural producers. At the same time, collectivization dramatically increased the stakes of Soviet industrialization: Under immense pressure to service the short-term loans for machinery imports in the face of deteriorating terms of trade, the regime found itself compelled to export grain from the starving countryside.

Author

• Friedrich Asschenfeldt, Princeton U