26o HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
tions have been established with the sole purpose of obtaining
this kind of information and utilizing it independently later.
The losses caused to Germany by these methods during the
years of business co-operation with Soviet Russia subsequent to
the Treaty of Rapallo were very severe. Another factor of great
importance is the guaranteeing by the State of industrial credits
to finance business with Soviet Russia, which has taken the
risk off the shoulders of the industries and businesses in question
and transferred them to the State—in other words, to the tax-
payer. This has resulted, strange as it may seem, in a direct
community of interests between Bolshevism and Bolshevism's
deadly enemies, the capitalists. In the interests of business
these latter are now concerned in the granting of Government
credits, and to this end their watchword has become: "All quiei
in Russia." The last thing they want is to have business upsei
by anything directly or indirectly discrediting the business
reputation of the Soviets; for this would endanger the placing
of orders; and, after all, should anything go wrong, it is th<
State that will bear the loss.
A classic example of the part played by interested business
circles in the conclusion of State agreements with Soviet Russi
is furnished by recent events in the U.S.A,, where the under
takings interested in Russian business exerted a decisive in
fluence on the course of negotiations and on public opinior
If the desired result was not obtained, this must be attribute
to quite different causes.
However, in Soviet Russia the decision rests with the Goverr
ment, and consequently the benefits of Russian orders can on]
be enjoyed if it pleases Moscow to give such orders to ti
various concerns in the respective countries. We thus con
to the inter-connection between business and politics i
Russia's present-day foreign trade system, and with it ?
reach the core of the question: Moscow, by preference, plac
orders in accordance with political considerations. Tt
explains why the Governments of all the states trying to <