THE CAUSES OF FAMINE IN RUSSIA 43
help of vast quantities of foreign machinery, spare parts and
other goods.1 Indeed, the Soviet Government has for years
left no stone unturned to obtain foreign currency at any price.
For this purpose it was equally ready to use humanitarian
methods like the Torgsin operations (which will be dealt with
in greater detail in a later chapter), to suppress the import of
articles not required for the process of industrialization but
otherwise absolutely essential, or to export food at a moment
when millions of persons were being swept off by hunger in
the country itself.
This urgent need of foreign exchange also explains the
Soviet anxiety to obtain foreign credits. Yet this latter method
of financing imports proved of little profit. After concessions
ceased to be granted to foreign capitalists, the Soviet Govern-
ment could obtain only medium or short term credits, and
almost exclusively credits for the import of goods, which had
to be promptly repaid in order to safeguard the discountability
of Soviet paper. Hence for a considerable time only the twc
first methods have remained advantageous for the financing
of the imports necessary for industrialization—the cutting ofl
of all imports not required for industrial reconstruction or fo]
armaments, and the forcing up of exports to a degree almosi
unimaginable in view of the economic position of the country
Even a hasty survey of Russian foreign trade statistic
suffices to show the extent to which imports of all goods no
essential for industrialization have been throttled. At thi
moment I will confine myself to two striking examples. Ta
has been from olden times one of the very few luxuries whid
even the poorest Russian peasant used to allow himself at a]
seasons. In a few months the imports of tea were so drasticall;
cut down by Moscow that they fell from 98,000 tons in the firs
1 It should be stressed in this connection that the demands, enormous i
themselves, made on the poptllation by the hurried process of industrializj
tion3 have been very greatly intensified by the fact that a large part of ti
newly created industry does not serve the needs of the population* fci
solely the requirements of armaments—a more unproductive aim from tl
economic standpoint.