Gile na Gile

So, the question is basically how much did it cost the Soviet Union (from its inception after the Bolshevik Revolution up to it's dissolution in our present era) to support Communist movements/parties worldwide?

Obviously, during the Cold War era the transferral of financial, military or logistical support from the mother country into any of it's attached (mainly Eastern bloc) communist satellites or to communist parties distributed throughout the imperialist/free world (tick as appropriate) was not subject to any type of international auditing (as if) but have we I wonder since the break-up of the USSR access to reliable data on these type of outflows?

Post WW II up to the death of Brezhnev is a period which interests me particularly.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Kevinmeath

Had to write something on the Cold War last year this bit may be of interest

'In contrast the Soviet Union’s empire weighted against it. The vast natural recourse that should have made it a rich nation was in fact bartered at low prices for manufactured goods of limited value. Cuba received $4 billion in aid and oil subsidies between 1981-86; Vietnam got more than $1 billion a year, Iraq received $1.5 billion in 1981 alone. The Warsaw Pact required an annual subsidy of $3 billion in oil alone. The Soviet Union could not afford such subsidies as it was the defence budget account for up to 50% of the USSR’s GDP. By the 1980’s the command economy of the Soviet Union was chronically inefficient, communist Russia was a second rate, half developed state but with a super powers armoury and commitments.[ii]'

[i]Issacs and Downing , For Forty Five Years the World held its breath Cold War, (1998, reprint 2007 London).p409

[i][ii] John Hughes-Wilson, The Cold War.p321

Gile na Gile

Thanks for that Kevin, it does provide some perspective.

I was just going out on a limb here hoping someone had this stuff at their fingerprints - guess I'm going to have to knuckle down and do the research after all.

Edward

The countries of East Europe were milked for every industrial product and agricultural goods which were exported to Soviet Union for peanuts.
But it is true that Soviet Union supported financially (mostly by sending military equipment) the countries where open welfare against Western Democracies was waged, eg. Cuba, Nicaragua, Angola, Vietnam, North Korea and so on.
http://www.historum.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=650239
Qte”The satellite states were regarded as a source of raw materials and of cheap manufactured goods. Exploitation worked in two directions. Russia secured the satellites' exports at below world prices. And it exported to them at above world prices. The Polish-Soviet agreement of August 16, 1945, for the annual export of Polish coal to the U.S.S.R. is a startling examole. "The robbery of Poland through this transaction alone amounted to over one hundred million dollars a year. British capitalists never got such a large annual profit out of their investments in India." [28] Shoes manufactured in Czechoslovakia at a cost of 300 crowns a pair were sold to Russia at 170 crowns a pair. Yet when the Czech government, owing to the severe drought of 1947, was forced to import large quantities of grain from the U.S.S.R., it had to pay more than 4 dollars a bushel for it. At the time, the U.S.A. was selling grain at 2.5 dollars per bushel on the world market.”

Kevinmeath

Will not disagree with you Edward, the 'Soviet Empire' was a completely flawed economic system that simply did not function.

While the American 'Empire' consisted of fully functioning liberal democracies or rather economies. For instance Britain put in the field (an air+sea) modern armies to 'face' the 'red menace' at no cost to the American Tax payer that could not be said for the Soviet Union.

In the area of technology the Western nations contributed as to a much greatwer extent than the 'Soviet Empire'.

Edgewaters

Russia is an energy-rich nation. They have a good deal of oil and gas. Initially, the Soviets exerted control over the satellites by encouraging energy-dependant economies in them. The satellites sent back raw materials and industrial output in return. During the breakup they tried to exert this control by cutting the pipelines and shutting the lights off. Not that they had much choice in any event, because energy production levelled off even as industrialization (and thus demand) continued to increase ...

Kevinmeath

Found this book interesting