Issue 145 (2020)

O. Kupchyk, Phd in History, Associate Professor

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2020.145.8

POLAND IN FOREIGN TRADE OF SOVIET UKRAINE IN THE EARLY 1920’s

The article reveals the circumstances under which the Ukrainian SSR established trade relations with the Republic of Poland in the early 1920s. The contractual legal framework and organizational forms of the Ukrainian SSR's trade activity in Poland have been clarified. The Poles have a greater interest in trade with neighboring Soviet Ukraine than Russia. Persons of sales representatives were established (I. Khurgin, I. Ruzhytsky). The role of the Ukrainian SSR Trade Representation in Warsaw in the foreign trade activities of the Ukrainian SSR is revealed. The place of the Polish market in export-import operations of the Soviet Ukraine has been determined.

It is found that, in accordance with the Protocol of the Additional Protocol to the Riga Peace Treaty, concluded on March 18, 1921, the Polish Government reserved the right to «normalize» the transit of German and Austrian goods passing through the Polish territory. Instead, during the negotiations in June 1921 on the conclusion of a trade agreement, the Polish government insisted that the Ukrainian SSR should be bound by the obligation of «the greatest facilitation of Poland’s trade in Ukraine». They planned to implement this by introducing customs tariffs favorable to Poles. Because of this, the trade agreement was not concluded.

It is stated that in Warsaw the Ukrainian SSR Trade Representative Office started operating in October 1921. Then the Soviet traders established the interest of the Polish metallurgical plants in Silesia in the Ukrainian iron ore (due to the small amount of iron in the Polish ore). They investigated the interest of these plants to Ukrainian scrap (due to lack of Polish) and anthracite coal.

At the same time, they determined that Poles were competitors in the timber trade. Due to the importance of the Free City of Danzig as a center for international trade, the bulk of the export goods of the Ukrainian SSR was directed to this city (market and port), not Warsaw. The Danzig Division and the Danzig Warehouses of the sales office operated in Danzig.

It has been investigated that during the 1921–1921 years, the Polish market of the Ukrainian Soviet Union bought both Polish and foreign goods. Imports from Poland at that time consisted of cereals (until 1922), agricultural and agricultural machinery and tools, clothing and footwear, haberdashery, electrical goods, stationery. Ukrainian exports consisted of metals, coal, wood, minerals, livestock waste, medicinal plants.

Participation of the Soviet Ukraine representatives in the Eastern Fair in Lviv in the autumn of 1922 is covered. It was established that the Ukrainian SSR Trade Representative Office in Warsaw operated until the end of 1922, when the Ukrainian SSR Trade Representative Office was formed.

Key words: export, import, gold karbovanets, polish mark, market, commodity, sales representative, sales representative.

Received by the editorial board: 20.04.2020

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