The relations between the USSR and the Reich, hostile till 1933, changed radically in 1939 after signing political agreements on 23 August and 28 September. Due to their provisions, co-operation, military issues including, developed. It embraced co-operation in aggression on Poland, fighting against Polish resistance movement, friendly neutrality during Finnish-Russian war and further German aggressions in Western Europe. The most important element was commercial exchange, mainly ordinance and strategic materials necessary to conduct war and military production. In sum, until 21 June 1944, the Soviet Union Bought different German products for 462.3 million marks, including 280 machines, 240 locomotives, 506 metal tool machines and other technical equipment. As far as ordinance is concerned, the Soviet Union received one unfinished cruise vessel („Lutzów” - finished in Leningrad shipyard), armoured plates and other materials to build war vessels, some types of sea artillery (including parts for submarines), torpedo and mine equipment, hydro-acustic and hydro-graphic apparatus, some cannons, some kinds of aeroplanes with spare engines and parts, radiotelegraphs, a few light tanks, engineering equipment and others. The German side received supplies for 741.5 million marks, containing 865 thousand tonnes of oil, 140 thousand tonnes of manganese, 14 thousand tonnes of copper, 3 thousand tonnes of nickel, 101 thousand tonnes of cotton, more than 1 million tonnes of wood, 11 thousand tonnes of flax, 21 thousand tonnes of chromium ore, 15 thousand tonnes of asbestos, 184 thousand tonnes of phosphates, 2736 kilos of platinum and 1462 thousand tonnes of grain. Russian deliveries were very regular, according to the scheme in the agreement. The last train with material crossed the Russian-German border a few hours before German aggression onto Russian territory. As a result of this co-operation, Hitler was able to conquer British blockade importing food and materials from the USSR and through its territory. In return for this, Stalin received machines, equipment and ordinance. It should be stressed that Soviet Union managed to trade from Germany the state-of-art military technology items, machines and equipment for heavy, light, chemical, excavation industries, some kinds of very scarce materials (duraluminium, wolfram) and, first of all, unique industrial equipment and machines the sales of which were refused by Western superpowers.
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