“Element of political pressure”: how the Entente countries organized the blockade of Soviet Russia

105 years ago, the Supreme Council of the Entente announced a complete blockade of Soviet Russia. The supply of goods, shipping communications, financial interaction, and even travel to the RSFSR were prohibited. According to historians, this international campaign had dire humanitarian consequences for our country, especially due to the inability to purchase medicines abroad. However, Russia managed to survive the restrictions. And the events of the Civil War convinced the West that the Bolshevik government would remain in power. Under pressure from the opposition and neutral states that needed Russian goods, the Entente lifted the total blockade.

On October 10, 1919, the Supreme Council of the Entente began a campaign for a complete blockade of Soviet Russia. It lasted just over three months. Although the conditions of the restrictions turned out to be difficult for the RSFSR, the republic was able to survive them.

“Betting on the military defeat of the Bolsheviks”

Western countries have repeatedly introduced various trade restrictions against Russia, but at the beginning of the twentieth century they turned out to be unprecedented. Difficulties with the import of certain goods arose since the beginning of the First World War and gradually increased.

As Ilya Ratkovsky, associate professor at the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University, candidate of historical sciences, recalled in a conversation with RT, due to the actions of the enemy fleet, ports on the Black and Baltic seas were actually blocked.

“Only Arkhangelsk and Murmansk in the north and Vladivostok in the Far East remained. This reduced the level of trade,” the expert said.

According to him, the problem was partially solved thanks to the ability to trade across the land border with Sweden. Thus, in particular, medicines were imported into Russia. In addition, trade with Persia intensified. However, this could not compensate for the losses. In 1917 the situation became even more complicated.

“The Entente allies reacted negatively to the October Revolution. But the very fact of the change of power was only the beginning of a series of events that sharply cooled their attitude towards Soviet Russia. In December 1917, the new Russian authorities concluded a truce with the states of the Quadruple Alliance, and in February 1918, the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) Yakov Sverdlov signed a decree canceling all government loans of the tsarist and Provisional governments, including foreign ones. Members of the Entente felt that huge sums of money were slipping out of their hands,” said the head of the department of political analysis and socio-psychological processes at the Russian Economic University in an interview with RT. Plekhanov Andrey Koshkin.

On March 3, 1918, the government of Soviet Russia, against the background of numerous internal and foreign policy problems, signed the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty with the countries of the Fourth Alliance. The already difficult conditions of this treaty were soon aggravated by the fact that the Entente and its allies began to intervene in Russian territory. Their units gradually landed in the North, the Far East, in the Black Sea ports, in the Baltic, in Transcaucasia and the Trans-Caspian region. According to historians, the leadership of the Entente tried to achieve the resumption of Russia's participation in the war, supported anti-Bolshevik forces, but did not exclude the option of dividing the country into colonial zones of influence.

In 1918, all diplomatic missions of foreign states in the RSFSR were closed. Soviet ambassadors also had to return to their homeland. The republic found itself in international political isolation.

Storming of the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917. Petrograd. Still from the film “October”. Directors Sergei Eisenstein, Grigory AlexandrovRIA Novosti

In many regions of the former Russian Empire, fighting took place between units of the Red Army and various anti-Bolshevik formations and groups. Fighting on the Trans-Siberian Railway cut off the European regions of Russia from Siberian grain reserves. Because of the Civil War, the part of the country controlled by the Bolsheviks lost communication with the Caucasian oil fields. In addition, while the RSFSR was at peace with Germany, the Entente states restricted trade with Soviet Russia to prevent their goods from entering the German market.

According to historians, the Bolsheviks had hope that after the Compiegne Truce and the denunciation of the Brest-Litovsk Peace, the situation would become different. However, the victorious countries in the First World War did not change anything. Entrepreneurs from neutral states tried to establish trade with Russia, but faced unofficial pressure from London. Soviet media wrote that the fleet of the Entente powers set up a blockade of Russian coasts and fired even on small ships transporting food.

“The important point was the open bet on the military defeat of the Bolsheviks in the Civil War. Formally, there was no blockade, trade was carried out, but with White Russia, the Soviet side was ignored,” said Ilya Ratkovsky.

“An attempt to inhumanly influence Russia”

The lack of trade with the RSFSR was quite painful for the population of European countries. The current situation aroused criticism from the opposition and provoked protests, but the authorities did not deviate from their course. The United States doubted the advisability of such a policy, but Great Britain and France insisted on tightening it.

On October 10, 1919, the Supreme Council of the Entente announced the introduction of an official complete blockade of Soviet Russia. Any ships were prohibited from visiting the harbors of the RSFSR. The supply of goods to the country was finally blocked. The issuance of passports for visiting Soviet Russia ceased, and postal and radiotelegraphic communications with Moscow were also severed. All financial and business ties were curtailed.

Meeting of the peace conference in Brest-Litovsk, during which the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was concluded between Soviet Russia and Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and TurkeyRIA Novosti

The Bolsheviks radioed notes to neutral states and Germany, demanding that they not join the blockade. However, despite the desire to continue cooperation with Russia, they could not do anything about the British fleet, which blocked the approaches to Soviet ports. Having established a blockade, Entente members began to expect changes in the balance of power within Russia.

“Trade restrictions are always an element of political pressure,” noted Ilya Ratkovsky.

The blockade has led to acute humanitarian problems. According to historians, drug shortages provoked massive deaths from typhus. The country lacked the steam locomotives needed to transport food.

The authorities of the RSFSR were alarmed by foreign policy failures, which provoked socio-economic difficulties, but the situation within the country gave certain reasons for optimism.

“At the end of 1919 – beginning of 1920, the Red Army won a number of victories over representatives of the White movement. There was a turning point in the Civil War. Much indicated that the Bolsheviks came to power in earnest and for a long time,” Koshkin noted.

Japanese invaders on the streets of VladivostokRIA Novosti

In the Entente countries, meanwhile, there was an increasingly acute shortage of many agricultural goods traditionally purchased in Russia. This led to an increase in prices and the popularity of leftist forces, which, according to Andrei Koshkin, the local authorities were very afraid of.

At the end of 1919, Soviet Russia made two important diplomatic breakthroughs. Peace negotiations with Estonia began. In addition, the head of the Soviet delegation, Maxim Litvinov, agreed on the exchange of prisoners of war with Great Britain on the territory of neutral Denmark.

“It was during these negotiations that Litvinov raised the question of lifting the economic blockade introduced in October 1919,” noted Ilya Ratkovsky.

In December 1919, the Italian Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the lifting of the blockade on Russia. This issue was actively discussed in the British Parliament. In London they admitted that they need Russian products.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin among the cadets of the First Moscow Soviet command courses of heavy artillery of the Red ArmyRIA News V. Feoktistov

On January 16, 1920, the Supreme Union Council of the Entente decided to restore trade and commercial relations with Russia. The process was quite difficult. The Americans, who initially opposed the blockade, lifted it reluctantly. Soon Western countries began to introduce new restrictions, some of which were in effect until the 1930s.

“Western countries tried to inhumanly influence Russia, playing on the relationship between politics and economics. But they could not achieve their goal. The Bolsheviks turned out to be much more resilient than the West thought. Well, in the end, any sanctions work until it becomes critically unprofitable for their main initiators. When what was happening hit the well-being of the British elite, the kingdom hastily abandoned the blockade,” concluded Andrei Koshkin.