Profit under the Soviets
Timber Concessions, Western interests and the Monetary Reforms under NEP
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12234185 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jon Lundesgaard (corresponding author), Victoria V Tevlina |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 71-90 |
| Publication date | 2021-01-02 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Revolutionary Russia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0954-6545 • E-ISSN: 1743-7873 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09546545.2021.1864918 |
| OpenAlex | W3128760634 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
In 1921, at the beginning of the New Economic Policy (NEP), V.I. Lenin pointed to the timber industry of the North as a promising opportunity for cooperation with Western interests and the Soviet state soon introduced timber concessions. However, these concessions were not particularly profitable and ended up as a short-lived experiment. This article analyses why timber concessions failed to make a profit, a critical question for the NEP’s semi-capitalist economy. It finds that monetary reforms that began with the re-establishment of central banking in October 1921 and ended in May 1924 with the new ruble clearly contributed to the failures of the timber concessions. The relative stability of the new currency was seen as an important achievement, but with the exchange rate initially fixed, the new ruble became overvalued. Thus, the export of goods purchased in new rubles became less profitable, or simply unprofitable. This led to severe difficulties for timber concessions such as Russangloles, Russhollandoles and Russnorvegoles. We focus on the important Russnorvegoles concession. We also find that there were two occasions when this concession succeeded in circumventing the problem of the overvalued ruble for short periods, yet acting contrary to Soviet interests in this way contributed to the end of Western interests in the company
Business · Currency · Economic policy · Economics · Economy · Market economy · Monetary economics · Profit (economics · State owned · Russia and Soviet political economy
As good as gold? A note on the Chervonets
Currency regulation in the NEP period
Madame Krasin and the Soviet government
New views on the allied intervention
The civil war in Northern Russia, 1918–1920
Russian timber industry in the 1920s
The civil war and Allied intervention in the Russian North (1918–1920)
April revised
Russia's Last Capitalists
Building Lenin's Russia
Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development 1930 to 1945
| Highly cited | No |
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