Abstract
On the turn of this century Russia’s Minister of Finance, Count Witte, wrote a memorandum to Tsar Nicholas II, debating the usefulness of foreign capital and know-how for a swift and successful industrialization of Russia. The fact that Western countries were actually prepared to make this useful contribution made him wonder; he wrote: ‘Why create with their own hands an even more terrible enemy? For me it is evident that, in giving us capital, foreign countries commit a political error, and my only desire is that their blindness should continue for as long as possible.’1 In Chapter 10 we quoted several Communist officials making the same point: why do the capitalist nations allow the transfer of their technology, know-how and other worthwhile commodities which will eventually diminish their own military power? According to several historians, the West has indeed made a considerable contribution to the industrialization of the Soviet Union. Anthony Sutton, for instance, has argued in his triptych Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (1968–1973) that Western exports of technology, know-how and management techniques have formed the major impetus for Soviet economic development since the birth of the Bolshevik state.2 Without East-West trade the USSR would probably not have survived its own inefficiency.
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Notes
Nove, The Economic History of the USSR (1969) p. 18.
Hirschman, National Power (1980) p. 61.
Wiles, ‘Is an Anti-Soviet Embargo Desirable or Possible?’, in Adelphi Paper (1984) p. 42.
Goldman, Détente and Dollars (1975) p. 50.
McIntyre and Cupitt, ‘East-West Strategic Trade Control: Crumbling Consensus?’, in Survey (1980) p. 107.
National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, Balancing the National Interest. U.S. National Security Export Controls and Global Economic Competition (1987) p. 71.
Goldman, Détente and Dollars (1975) p. 48.
Funigiello, American-Soviet Trade (1988) p. 30.
Bertsch, ‘Fast-West Strategic Trade, COCOM and the Atlantic Alliance’, Atlantic Papers (1983) p. 13.
Funigiello, American-Soviet Trade (1988) p. 32.
Funigiello, American-Soviet Trade (1988) p. 47.
Funigiello, American-Soviet Trade (1988) p. 78.
Hanson, Western Economic Statecraft (1988) p. 28.
Bertsch, ‘Fast-West Strategic Trade’ (1983) pp. 34, 35.
Sutton, National Suicide (1974) p. 18.
Wiles, ‘Anti-Soviet Embargo’ (1984) p. 47.
Mastanduno, ‘Trade as a Strategic Weapon’ (1988) p. 132.
Stent, Technology Transfer to the Soviet Union (1983) p. 2.
Funigiello, American-Soviet Trade (1988) p. 216.
Rode and Jacobsen (eds), Economic Warfare or Détente (1985) p. 132
Becker, Economic Relations with the USSR. Issues for the Western Alliance (1983) p. 136.
Rode and Jacobsen (eds), Economic Warfare or Détente (1985) pp. 148, 149
Bertsch (ed.), Controlling East-West Trade and Technology Transfer. (1988) p. 235.
Perle, ‘The Strategic Implications of West-East Technology Transfer’, in Adelphi Paper (1984) p. 23.
Bertsch, ‘Fast-West Strategic Trade’ (1983) p. 20.
J. Feldman, ‘Trade Policy and Foreign Policy’, in The Washington Quarterly (1985) p. 73.
Perle, ‘Anti-Soviet Embargo’ (1984) p. 23.
Feldman, ‘Trade Policy and Foreign Policy’ (1985) p. 73.
Parrott (ed.), Trade, Technology, and Soviet-American Relations (1985) p. 267.
Perle, ‘Strategic Implications’ (1984) p. 27.
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© 1992 Peter van Ham
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van Ham, P. (1992). The Strategic Embargo: Western Economic Defense. In: Western Doctrines on East-West Trade. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12610-1_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12610-1_12
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