DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/2524-048X.2025.32.8

 

Abstract. The aim of the article is to highlight the foreign trade activities of European countries in the Ukrainian SSR in the early 1920s. The research methodology is based on the principle of historical analysis. The author used analytical, problem-oriented and chronological research methods. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time, the establishment of trade and economic relations between European states and Soviet Ukraine in the early 1920s has been comprehensively investigated.

Conclusions. In early January 1922, the «Trade Representation of the Ukrainian SSR in the Baltic States» was founded. Having studied the local market, the trade representative concluded that the demand for Ukrainian raw materials there was insignificant. The Polish trade mission in the Ukrainian SSR was headed by Ignacy Ruzhytsky. Polish entrepreneurs in Ukraine were particularly interested in «forest concessions». Most Ukrainian goods were delivered to the Danzig, not Warsaw market. The Czechoslovak trade mission to the Ukrainian SSR was headed first by I. Hirsa, then by V. Beneš. The Czechs were unable to compete with German companies on the Russian market, so they preferred the Ukrainian market, where they had successfully traded until the First World War.

According to the plan of Soviet diplomats, Austria was to play a role «in trade activities as an important transit corridor on the Danube, connecting the countries of Central and Southeastern Europe and all of them together with the Black Sea». G. Amatori was appointed as Italy’s trade representative. Soviet traders offered the Italians timber, coal, and scrap metal. They also intended to buy cars and electrical goods. The German trade representative was Gauschild. Under the agreement of November 5, 1922, the Ukrainian SSR managed to preserve its financial claims, according to which it demanded 410 million marks from Germany for the supply of food by Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi.

Already on January 15, 1922, the «Trade Delegation of the Ukrainian SSR» was approved. The Istanbul market is considered important for the supply of food to the southern regions of Ukraine, as well as for the sale of certain types of raw materials and industrial products.

Keywords: export, Europe, import, goods, trade, trade representation, agreement.

Submitted 18.09.2025

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