Land lease in the USSR: organisational and financial aspects of implementation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the issue of organisation and financial support of the lend-lease as a form of military-economic cooperation between the Allies of the Anti-Hitler Coalition during the Second World War. The results of the study were obtained by applying the dialectical method of cognition of phenomena of a legal and economic nature and relating to the study of the phenomenon of land lease as an integral element of the State’s foreign economic activity and a method of providing military and economic assistance. In addition, the author used statistical methods to summarise, systematise and analyse the material; tabular methods to visualise the analysed data; and abstract and logical methods to substantiate theoretical positions and formulate conclusions. At the beginning of the Second World War, the Soviet government conducted its procurement operations in the United States through the Amtorg Trading Corporation. Due to the civilian nature of its activities, Amtorg was replaced in early 1942 by the newly created Government Procurement Commission, which was responsible for organising supplies from the United States until the end of the war. An analysis of the sources of financing for allied supplies shows that 0.91% of all purchases from the US were made with cash; 0.65% of the goods received from the UK and 0.006% of the supplies from Canada. If the sources of financing include the loans received by the USSR from these countries at the beginning of the war, the share of payment will reach 0.96%, 30.3%, and 7.27%, respectively. All shipments of goods under the lend-lease system were insured by the Foreign Operations Department of the USSR State Insurance. The insurance operations themselves were carried out by engaging the Black Sea and Baltic General Insurance Company Limited, a Black Sea and Baltic insurance company. The role and importance of the customs authorities grew in the context of the implementation of the land lease. The main burden of customs clearance and control fell on the customs offices in the northern (Arkhangelsk and Murmansk), southern (Baku, Dzhulfinsk, Gaudan) and Far Eastern (Vladivostok) regions. With the outbreak of hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, customs were liquidated, but in January 1944, the process of their re-establishment in the liberated port cities began. The problem of paying for supplies under the lend-lease arose after the end of hostilities. It concerned not only the USSR, but all the countries receiving American aid. Each of them had its own approach to determining the amount of debt and the specifics and procedure for paying it. The last payment to repay the debt for Soviet supplies under the lend-lease was made on 21 August 2006. Amtorg and the Government Procurement Commission were responsible for organising the supply under the lend-lease. The financial aspects relate to procurement financing, cargo insurance, customs and debt repayment.