January 02, 2014

U.S.-Soviet Grain Trade: 5 Stages of Grief


U.S.-Soviet Grain Trade: 5 Stages of Grief

Friday, January 3, marks 50 years since the first sale of grain from the United States to Soviet Russia.

The Russian Revolution was – to put it lightly – a rather traumatic event, both for those involved and for those watching from dangerously close by. Take the United States, for one. Looking back, we can discern, in its trade relations with the newly-formed Soviet government, evidence of the familiar five stages of grief (although, being a country, they played a bit fast and loose with the ordering):

 

1. Denial

The horror!

When your image of communists equates them with pure evil, when your greatest fear is that your country may also succumb to its “spectre,” it’s really no time for trade. For over 45 years – through prosperity, depression, war, and McCarthyist witch hunts – the U.S. did not trade in grain with the USSR. To be fair, however, as millions of Soviets died of famine, considerable grain and food was donated to the USSR through the ARA from 1921 to 1923, by which point NEP had rescucitated Soviet agriculture and the Soviets even began exporting grain.

 

2. Bargaining

"Ask not what the Soviets can do for you, but what you can send the Soviets."

Which brings us to the deal of 1963-64: a four-million-ton shipment of U.S. grain to the USSR. Rather suddenly, grain sales were on the table again. Long decades of denial were finally over. While the sale was handled by private U.S. companies, it was supported and publicized by JFK himself – one of his last acts as president. As told by Ben Nordemann, the architect of the deal, it was an exercise in careful bargaining and unexpected goodwill, naturally accompanied by toasts to friendship and world peace.

Later, larger shipments followed – but not all of them went quite as well.

 

3. Anger

No, Soviets, no invading other countries! No more grain for you!

But let’s not forget that the Cold War was still going on. Once initiated, grain sales could now theoretically be used for less world-peace-related and more sanction-like purposes. In 1980, the Carter administration imposed a grain embargo on the Soviet Union for invading Afghanistan, at a time when the Soviets were importing 12-16 million tons of wheat per year. Sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it? In fact, the embargo amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist, as the Soviets just imported their grain from elsewhere.

 

4. Depression

All that laughter somehow didn't lead to more grain deals.

And so the grain trade boomed, undeterred by political considerations. But just as the Soviet Union began to open up – keyword "began" – agricultural trade got a bit “depressed.” Up until then, the USSR had been such a good market: a giant country with woefully inadequate technology, always in need of grain to feed its own people. Now their technology was catching up, grain harvests were doing fine. Oh, and they were still communists – the tensions of the early 80’s were certainly no help.

 

5. Acceptance?

Putin and Bush in Sochi: doesn't this look like acceptance to you?

Would there have been a grain-trade equivalent of acceptance at the end of this long process? What with the Soviet Union gone and Russia in its stead, we may never know. And the point, actually, is rather moot. Since early in this century, Russia – before the Bolshevik Revolution a breadbasket for Europe – has been exporting grain again...

 

 

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

 

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

The Moscow Eccentric
December 01, 2016

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

Murder at the Dacha
July 01, 2013

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

Faith & Humor
December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

At the Circus
January 01, 2013

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955