analogbear5 said:Same deal with Soviet imports and exports—basically nonexistent. Back then, Joseph Stalin was obsessed with autarky. He was terrified that Western capitalists would get a foothold in the Soviet economy.
The Soviet Union was essentially operating under a form of economic isolation back then, a trend set in motion during the revolution. While the Bolsheviks pushed through sweeping nationalization, the real catalyst for their forced isolation from the West was the seizure of oil fields in Azerbaijan near the Caspian Sea. At that time, oil companies held massive sway over their respective governments—and they had assets elsewhere too. They couldn't just sit by and let nationalization happen without hitting back.
Later on, the Bolsheviks tried to frame this isolation as a mere reaction to Western fear of a "successful" new political system, and eventually, the West simply moved on from the episode. Of course, that era of isolation wasn't nearly as effective as what we see today; there was no unified, coordinated effort among all players. Information traveled much slower, and state oversight of corporations was significantly weaker than modern standards. Furthermore, the shift of global dominance from the United Kingdom to the USA was already underway, meaning the major powers weren't acting with a single, unified policy.
