Turkey in the Foreign Trade of the Ukrainian SSR (1921–1923)

Abstract

The article deals with the issues that have not been previously studied, notably trade cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey, the role of the Turkish market in foreign trade of the Ukrainian SSR, trade activity of Turkey nationals in the territory of Ukraine in the early 1920s. The research reveals the setting, in which trade relations between Turkey and the Ukrainian SSR have been formed at the beginning of the 1920s. The contractual and legal framework, organizational forms of the Ukrainian SSR’s trade activity in Turkey and port infrastructure are described. Trade representatives as well as their suggestion as to the activities of the trade mission of the Ukrainian SSR are named. The organizational and staff structure of the trade mission of the Ukrainian SSR in Turkey is examined. The issue of subordination of the Crimean branch of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Trade to “Ukrzovnishtorh” with the view to trade with Turkey and difficult social and economic situation on the peninsula is highlighted. The role of the trade mission of the Ukrainian SSR in Istanbul as part of the foreign trade activity of the Ukrainian SSR is described. The place of the Istanbul market in export-import operations of the Ukrainian SSR is exposed. The monetary value of the volume of export-import operations is indicated. The author states that with the establishment of the USSR and further centralization of power in the area of foreign trade, Russian official was assigned as trade permanent representative of the Ukrainian SSR in Turkey. Until the beginning of 1923, the activities of the trade mission of the Ukrainian SSR in Istanbul in the field of export and import of goods were cut down to a minimum. Keywords: export, import, golden karbovanets, Turkish lira, port, market, product, trade mission, trade representative.