NATO sanctions against Russia, Soviet countermeasures experience
Due to the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Europe and the United States have imposed economic sanctions on the ruble, breaking the previous commitment to the sanctity of private property, tearing up a large number of agreements with **, and freezing its assets overseas.
In response, countermeasures were taken. Now there is a saying circulating on the Internet that ** has leased more than 50 civil aircraft from Europe and the United States, and now because of sanctions, European and American assets in Russia, including these aircraft, can be directly confiscated.
Although this method may not seem glamorous, in the case of a joint siege by the great powers, it is a way to protect their own rights and interests. In fact, in the early days of the founding of Soviet Russia, Europe and the United States adopted the strategy of economic alliance and encirclement and suppression, and demanded that Soviet Russia bear the debts of imperial Russia in Europe and the United States.
Soviet Russia responded by confiscating European and American assets and demanding that Europe and the United States compensate for the losses caused by the joint invasion, and successfully shirked the debts of Europe and the United States. In the end, at the Genoa Conference, imperialism returned disappointed, and Soviet Russia successfully stood on the world stage as a new state.
Today we will talk about the economic confrontation between socialism and Europe and the United States a hundred years ago.
The Entente in World War I**: The Debt and Modernization of Old Russia**The economic system of the old imperial era was based on feudal serfdom and lacked sufficient productivity, scientific and technological capabilities, and the quality of the population, which led to the country's operating model and organizational structure being relatively backward from those of capitalist countries such as Britain and the United States.
Although Alexander II's reforms brought ** into capitalist society, this top-down reform did not completely solve the problem of serfdom and feudalism, but instead preserved a large number of these social remnants.
Therefore, after the reform, ** still relied on the exploitation of civilians to maintain the interests of the big capitalists and landlords, and needed to maintain the participation of the big army in the division of the world by means of international borrowing and materials.
France is the main borrower, while the United Kingdom is the main supplier of goods.
Before World War I, Britain and other European countries provided a lot of economic aid to France, especially in grain, butter, eggs and timber, and also borrowed 11.3 billion francs from France.
However, with the outbreak of World War I and the defeat of the Russian army, there was a food crisis in the country, and the scale of borrowing was increasing. In the end, after the outbreak of the ** revolution, Soviet Russia was founded and owed 18.5 billion rubles in debt to Britain and France and other powers.
However, the European and American coalition tried to stifle its development by forcing Russia to repay its debts, but Russia remained unmoved and eventually succeeded in withdrawing from World War I.
The birth of Soviet Russia, on the one hand, relieved the pressure on Britain and France on the Western Front and aroused their dissatisfaction. On the other hand, as the only socialist country in the world, Soviet Russia encouraged the revolt of the exploited classes in the capitalist countries and shook the rule of imperialism.
Against this backdrop, from 1918 onwards, the Anglo-American Allied countries jointly intervened militarily in Soviet Russia and supported counter-revolutionary forces at home. However, under the leadership of Comrade Lenin, the Russian Red Army successfully defeated most of the Entente intervention armies and counter-revolutionary forces, and won the domestic revolutionary war.
However, the British and French powers then imposed economic sanctions and blockades on Soviet Russia in an attempt to bring it to a difficult position. Therefore, around 1920, Soviet Russia was isolated in the international community and became a real "international orphan".
In the process of Lenin's intervention in the revolution by Britain and France, Soviet Russia adopted a tough strategy of not recognizing the national debts of the imperial Russian era and confiscating the assets of the great powers in **, so as to counter the threat of the great powers.
This strategy led to a stalemate between Soviet Russia and the Great Powers until 1921, when Russia began to implement a new economic policy, hoping to develop socialism by establishing a market economy and using all resources at home and abroad.
Britain and France, because of the post-World War I recession, needed the Soviet market and dreamed that the Soviet Union would be able to repay its debts. Against this background, Soviet Russia and the Great Powers finally held the Genoa Conference in 1921, which was convened for economic purposes.
At the conference, Britain and other powers tried to make a peaceful evolution of Soviet Russia by restoring the ** with Soviet Russia. However, Horn and other British chancellors of the exchequer believe that "the only way to strangle communism" is to bring ** and its people under the influence of civilization in the rest of the world.
Against this background, Britain began to try to restore contacts with Soviet Russia.
In 1921, when Soviet Russia suffered a severe famine, Britain took the opportunity to sign an aid agreement with it and set up an international aid committee, inviting Britain, France, Italy, the United States and other countries to jointly assist Soviet Russia.
In return, Soviet Russia announced that it would recognize Imperial Russia's pre-war debts. This shows that Soviet Russia is not simply playing tricks, but making decisions based on international reactions. Britain then planned a large economic conference, to which all the industrial countries of Europe were invited, with the aim of discussing the economic problems of the European countries and the country.
France was the first to agree, and the union of the two European powers made the meeting a no-brainer. The venue of the talks was chosen in Genoa, Italy, which is known as the "Genoa Conference" in history.
Russia promised to participate in the meeting, but it was postponed due to a change in the French prime minister. As a result of British efforts, the Genoa Conference finally began on April 10.
On March 28, Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Japan held a meeting in London and jointly formulated a plan for the revival of ** and Europe. The core idea of the plan is that eight demands are put forward for Soviet Russia, which mainly include the recognition of all debts of imperial Russia and temporary **, the return of foreign property confiscated by Soviet Russia, the abolition of Soviet Russia's state foreign trade monopoly, the restoration of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of foreigners in Russia during the imperial Russian period, the establishment of a compensation commission and an arbitration court by Russia's foreign cooperation, foreign compensation by Russia according to the results of the trial, and the cessation of Soviet Russia's global revolutionary propaganda.
In the plan "On the Revival of ** and Europe", London's Downing Street made unreasonable demands on the Great Powers. However, the Soviet Union demanded that the Great Powers compensate for the losses incurred during the invasion, totaling up to 39 billion rubles, which is the famous "counter-compensation proposal".
Compared with the requirements of Britain and France, the requirements of Soviet Russia were more and more stringent. In this regard, Britain was willing to allow Soviet Russia to extend the time of debt payments and cut interest, while France was firmly opposed.
At the formal meeting in Genoa, the two sides disagreed and broke up unhappily. In the end, the debts of Imperial Russia were invisibly erased by Soviet Russia. Wen Shijun believes that the Genoa Conference was a failed meeting for Britain and France, but it was the first step for Soviet Russia to enter the international arena.
As a newly established state, Soviet Russia appeared on the stage of an international conference for the first time, which was of great political significance. Although at the official conference in Genoa, Soviet Russia and the countries did not reach an agreement, but in private, the Soviet Union and Germany concluded the Treaty of Raballo, which began economic complementarity and gradually normalized relations.
This also marked the failure of Britain and France to encircle and strangle the Soviet Union. Therefore, today's economic joint encirclement of Europe and the United States, judging from the British and Russian tricks after the October Revolution, this kind of trick may not necessarily suppress the first, but will stimulate the fighting spirit of the first.