Looking for Economic Cooperation between Austria and the Soviet Union during Khrushchev’s Thaw

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2022.5.754

Keywords:

Austria, USSR, N. S. Khrushchev, J. Raab, B. Kreisky, A. Schärf, compensation deliveries, bilateral trade, oil and gas industry, economy of the Soviet Union, foreign trade relations

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the development of a more correct model of the relationship between East and West. The traditional view of Europe after 1945 with its opposite and mutually exclusive military and economic organizations is characterized in traditional historiography by the existence of a symmetrical and parallel development of two ideological blocs during the bipolar confrontation of the systems. In the context of modifying this model, the article proposes to consider the continent as a complex space where parallelism, asymmetry, and convergence coexist, and which has seen multi-level cooperation between a wide range of subjects in various fields. All this will allow a new assessment of the degree of involvement of the USSR in global economic relations. Particular attention is paid to the compensatory supply of goods in accordance with the State Treaty after 1955, as well as the attempts of the Soviet leadership to establish bilateral trade. A comparative analysis of the mechanisms for the implementation of Soviet-Austrian economic cooperation makes it possible to show more clearly how fundamentally different socio-economic systems could interact and how they adapted to the new economic reality. The author mostly refers to documents from the Russian State Archive of Economics and the Bruno Kreisky Archive Foundation, which have not been used previously, and are first introduced into scholarly circulation.

Author Biography

Andrei Keller

Dr. Hab. (History), Research Fellow, Russian State University for the Humanities; Senior Researcher, Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin.

6, Miusskaya Sq., 125993, Moscow, Russia.

19, Mira Str., 620002, Yekaterinburg, Russia.

ORCID 0000-0002-9086-1079

a.v.keller@urfu.ru

References

Artemov, E. T. (2006). Nauchno-tekhnicheskaya politika v sovetskoi modeli pozdneindustrial’noi modernizatsii [Science and Technology Policy in the Soviet Model of Late Industrial Modernization]. Moscow, ROSSPEN. 254 p.

Azarenko, S. A., Keller, A. V. (2021). Teoretiko-metodologicheskie aspekty sotsial’noi topologii remesla [Theoretical and Methodological Aspects of the Social Topology of Craft]. In Intellekt. Innovatsii. Investitsii. No. 5, pp. 81–90. DOI 10.25198/2077- 7175-2021-5-81.

Beletskii, V. M. (1962). Sovetskii Soyuz i Avstriya. Bor‘ba Sovetskogo Soyuza za vozrozhdenie nezavisimoi demokraticheskoi Avstrii i ustanovlenie s nei druzhestvennykh otnoshenii (1938–1960) [The Soviet Union and Austria. The Struggle of the Soviet Union for the Revival of an Independent Democratic Austria and the Establishment of Friendly Relations with It (1938–1960)]. Moscow, Izdanie Instituta mezhdunarodnykh otnoshenii. 341 p.

Diamond, J. (2010). Ruzh’ya, mikroby i stal’. Istoriya chelovecheskikh soobshchestv [Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies]. Moscow, AST. 604 p.

Eich, R. B. (1962). Das sowjetische Öl auf dem Weltmarkt. In Ost-Probleme, Vol. 14, No. 8 (1 April), S. 234–241.

Harrod, E. H. (2010). Austrian Neutrality: The Early Years, 1955–1958. In Austrian History Yearbook. Vol. 41, pp. 216–246. DOI 10.1017/S0067237809990154.

Iber, W. M. (2009). Erdöl statt Reparationen. Die Sowjetische Mineralölverwaltung (SMV) in Österreich 1945–1955. In Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Vol. 57, S. 571–605.

Iber, W. M. (2011). Die Sowjetische Mineralölverwaltung in Österreich: Zur Vorgeschichte der OMV 1945–1955. Innsbruck, Studienverlag. 312 S.

Kapelinskii, Yu. N. (1967). Razvitie torgovykh otnoshenii SSSR s promyshlenno razvitymi stranami kapitalizma [Development of Trade Relations between the USSR and the Industrially Developed Countries of Capitalism]. In Vneshneekonomicheskie svyazi SSSR za 50 let. Moscow, Nauchno-issledovatel’skii kon”yunkturnyi institut Ministerstva vneshnei torgovli, pp. 110–117.

Keller, A. V. (2022). “Deistvuite bystro, korrektno, po-avstriiski”: kompensatsionnye postavki Avstrii v SSSR 1955–1963 gg. [“Act Quickly, Correctly, in an Austrian Way”: Compensatory Deliveries of Austria to the USSR in 1955–1963]. In Istoriya. Elektronnyi nauchno-obrazovatel’nyi zhurnal [website]. Vol. 13. DOI 10.18254/S207987840020439-1. URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840020439-1-1/ (accessed: 03.09.2022).

Lipkin, M. A. (2009). Evropeiskaya integratsiya i sovetskie ekonomicheskie initsiativy (1950-e – pervaya polovina 1970-kh godov). Po novym materialam rossiiskikh i zarubezhnykh arkhivov [European Integration and Soviet Economic Initiatives (1950s – First Half of the 1970s). Based on New Materials from Russian and Foreign Archives]. In Novaya i noveishaya istoriya. No. 3, pp. 47–64.

Lipkin, M. A. (2016). Sovetskii Soyuz i integratsionnye protsessy v Evrope: seredina 1940-kh – konets 1960-kh godov [The Soviet Union and Integration Processes in Europe: Mid-1940s – Late 1960s]. Moscow, Russkii fond sodeistviya obrazovaniyu i nauke. 560 р.

Martinets, Yu. A. (2021). Sovetsko-avstriiskie ekonomicheskie otnosheniya kak problema otechestvennoi istoriografii [Soviet-Austrian Economic Relations as a Problem of National Historiography]. In Vestnik Rossiiskogo gosudarstvennogo gumanitarnogo universiteta. Seriya: Politologiya. Istoriya. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya. No. 4, pp. 19–31. DOI 10.28995/2073-6339-2021-4-19-31.

Moreeva, S. N. (2019). Nesbalansirovannost’ struktury rossiiskogo eksporta (s nachala XX v.): istoriya i namechennye puti preodoleniya [Imbalance in the Structure of Russian Exports (since the Beginning of the 20th Century): History and Planned Ways of Overcoming the Imbalance]. In Teoreticheskaya i prikladnaya ekonomika. No 1, pp. 20–40. DOI 10.25136/2409-8647.2019.1.20811.

Moser, N. (2018). Oil and the Economy of Russia. From the Late-Tsarist to the Post-Soviet Period. L., N. Y., Routledge. 190 p.

Müller, W. (2011). A Good Example of Peaceful Coexistence? The Soviet Union, Austria, and Neutrality, 1955‒1991. Wien, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 381 S.

Prozumenshchikov, M. Yu., Tomilina, N. G. et al. (Eds.). (2009). Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. Dva tsveta vremeni: dokumenty iz lichnogo fonda N. S. Khrushcheva v 2 t. [Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. Two Colors of Time: Documents from the Personal Fund of N. S. Khrushchev. 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Mezhdunarodnyi fond “Demokratiya”. Vol. 2. 876 p.

RGAE [Russian State Archive of Economics]. Stock 413. List 13. Dos. 9738; List 31. Dos. 271.

SBKA. BKAA/BMAA. VII.1 Länderbox UdSSR; Box 2; VII. 2. Box 13, 14.

Shveitser, V. Ya. (2014). SSSR – Avstriya. Na virazhakh mirovoi politiki [USSR – Austria. On the Turns of World Politics]. In Sovremennaya Evropa. No. 2, pp. 121–130.

Sorokin A. N. (2022). Gosudarstvennyi dogovor 1955 goda i stanovlenie ekonomicheskikh vzaimootnoshenii SSSR i Avstrii [The State Treaty of 1955 and the Formation of Economic Relations between the USSR and Austria]. In Novyi istoricheskii vestnik. No. 2 (72), pp. 46–71.

Sorokin, A. N. (2019). Avstriiskii neitralitet 1955 g.: model’ dlya Germanii ili fenomen kholodnoi voiny? [Austrian Neutrality in 1955: A Model for Germany or a Cold War Phenomenon?]. In Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 4: Istoriya. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya. Vol. 24. No. 5, pp. 222–235. DOI 10.15688/jvolsu4.2019.5.16.

State Treaty for the Re-Establishment of an Independent and Democratic Austria. Vienna, May 15, 1955. In UK Treaties Online (UKTO) [website]. URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20170709133128/http://treaties.fco.gov.uk/docs/pdf/1957/TS0058.pdf (accessed: 09.11.2021).

Vatlin, A. Yu. (2006). Avstriya v XX veke. Uchebnoe posobie [Austria in the 20th Century. Study Guide]. Moscow, Drofa. 222 p.

Vneshnyaya torgovlya SSSR 1922–1981 [Foreign Trade of the USSR. 1922–1981]. (1982). Moscow, Finansy i statistika. 194 p.

Vneshnyaya torgovlya SSSR za 1956 god. Statisticheskii obzor [Foreign Trade of the USSR in 1956. Statistical Review]. (1957). Moscow, Vneshtorgizdat, 200 p.

Wessely, K. (1958). Österreich und die Erdölwirtschaft der Ostblockländer. In Osteuropa. Vol. 8. No. 10/11, S. 694–699.

Published

2022-12-28

How to Cite

Keller, A. (2022). Looking for Economic Cooperation between Austria and the Soviet Union during Khrushchev’s Thaw. Quaestio Rossica, 10(5), 1674–1690. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2022.5.754

Issue

Section

Problema voluminis