1917-1920 the Struggle for Existence

As the New Economic Policy developed, industry was divided into "trusts," as they were called, such as the Oil Trust, the Coal Trust and the Flax Trust, at first horizontal in character, but gradually becoming vertical also. With the trusts, which were organs of production, were associated syndicates, organs of sale and purchase, handling both foreign and internal trade. The trusts were later divided into sections; for example, the Oil Trust subdivided into Azneft (Azerbaidjan Oil), Grozneft (Grozny Oil) and Embaneft (Emba Oil). United action and governmental control were secured by an expansion of the Supreme Economic Council to include representatives of the trust sections, so as to form a kind of Industrial General Staff.

The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.—Since 1917 the vast territory under the Soviet authority had been an inchoate mass whose constituent parts and political character were chang ing almost from month to month. The time had come to organize a framework of government.

At the end of 1922 the territory governed from Moscow con sisted of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic (the R.S. F.S.R.), White Russia, the Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Early in that year Stalin, the general secretary of the Com munist Party, was instructed as commissar of nationalities to draw up a plan of federation. In Dec. 1922, the First Congress of Soviet Republics met at Moscow and confirmed the pact for the formation of a Union. Delegations were present from four federations, the Russian, Ukrainian, Caucasian and White Rus sian. The Far Eastern Republic, a semi-independent buffer state closely affiliated to the R.S.F.S.R., had been merged with the latter in the preceding November, and a part of Central Asia was also included in the Russian Federation.

The constitution of the new state, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, was accepted by the Central Executive Committee on July 6, 1923, and became effective from that date. To the four allied republics two others were added at the end of 1924 by the inclusion of the federations of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which superseded former geographical divisions of Central Asia.

The constitution was framed to express the new Soviet policy of decentralization and freedom for the constituent governments, a plan which might have prevented the breach between the na tionalistic Baltic States and Moscow, had it been developed earlier. Under the constitution of 1924 (C. 2, Para. 4) each united republic retained the right of withdrawal from the Union. The sovereignty of the individual republics was carefully guarded, and many of the functions of government were left with them. Each republic had its own Council of Commissars, but the Union reserved for itself the Commissariats of Foreign Affairs, War and Marine, Trade, Transport and Posts and Telegraphs.

Paradoxically, the most important unifying force of the new state, which contained so many races, creeds and languages, was not mentioned in the constitution. The Communist Party, with its rigid discipline and centralized authority, was destined to control each of the constituent states and to cement them more firmly together.

The Changed Position Abroad.

An improvement of rela tions with the Baltic States followed the collapse of Denikin and Yudenich. In the autumn of 1919 Litvinov was sent by the Soviet to Dorpat in Estonia to negotiate peace with Estonia and Finland. Peace treaties with both States were signed early in the following year on reasonable terms. A settlement with Latvia, whose Soviet Government had been overthrown in May 1919, was delayed by the Lettish claim to the province of Lettgalen. The Letts refused to negotiate and in a three-weeks campaign, Jan. 3-24, 192o, drove the Red troops from the province. It was the only successful campaign against the Red Army in the whole intervention period. Peace with Latvia was signed on Aug. 11, 1920. In the previous January the Allied blockade had been lifted. Anglo-Russian nego tiations began in the winter of 1919-2o, but were interrupted by the Polish War, and it was not until March 16, 1921, that a trade agreement according de facto recognition to the Soviet was signed in London. In the same year similar agreements were made with Germany (May 6), Norway (Sept. 2), Austria (Dec. 7), and Italy (Dec. 26).

The Genoa Conference.—The New Economic Policy stimu lated the foreign trend towards commercial rapprochement with the Soviet, and in the spring of 1922 an international confer ence was held at Genoa, where the Soviet envoys for the first time met foreign statesmen on equal terms. The atmosphere was at first cordial and a proposal was made to provide financial assistance to the Soviet on condition that the debts of the Tsarist Government were recognized. A period of haggling followed, but on April 16, 1922, Germany and the Soviet privately signed an agreement at Rapallo shelving the debt question, affirming mutual friendship, and re-establishing full diplomatic relations. This un expected event revived fears of a Russo-German combination to upset the Treaty of Versailles, and the Genoa Conference ended without reaching a solution. Although a meeting of experts to discuss financial matters was held in the summer at The Hague, prospects of a settlement were never bright and little was ac complished.