96. The Development of economic Cooperation with other Lands.
The question of our relationships to the foreign world is closely connected with the question of the organisation of large-scale industry. Soviet Russia is encircled by a blockade, and this does immense harm to the country. The figures in the following table show how important the interruption of economic intercourse with other lands has been in its influence upon Russian manufacturing industry and agriculture.
Our chief imports were manufactured articles, and between 1909 and 1918 the quantity of these imports increased by 65 per cent. The import of raw materials and half-manufactured goods increased in the same period by 60 per cent. Thus the importance of imports notably augmented. The most notable imports were industrial machinery apparatus of various kinds, hardware, agricultural machinery, chemical products, electrical accessories, and other means of production. But there was also a steady increase in the import of articles of consumption (textiles, leather goods, etc.).
All intercourse with Germany was broken off at the outset of the war. When Soviet Russia was blockaded, trade relations with the Entente likewise came to an end. According to pre-war estimates, our total imports of goods amounted to nearly one and a half milliards of roubles. This shows what a loss the blockade has inflicted upon us.
The policy of our party must therefore aim at the reopening of economic relationships with other States — in so far, of course, as this is compatible with our general aims. The best guarantee, in this connexion, would be a decisive victory over the counter-revolution.
A second task concerns the mutual economic relationships between Russia and those countries in which the proletariat gains the upper hand. We must aim, not merely at economic exchanges with such