The History Between Two Known Rivals

The historic rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States has been retold countless times. Often left out is the fascinating period of cooperation where the U.S. was an invaluable supporter of the Soviet Union’s agricultural industrialization. It might be hard to fathom why the U.S. would ever seek to help a superpower that stood against its capitalist society. However, since imperial Russia abolished serfdom far later than its surrounding European countries, any attempt at an agricultural transition was far more challenging than expected. As a consequence, the Soviet Union realized that it could not reach its goals of agricultural transformation without outside help from its most unlikely ally.

Russia’s Outdated Agricultural Techniques and the Isolation of Peasants

Due to Russia’s extensive reliance on serfdom prior to 1861, the development of modern agricultural techniques was considerably slower than in other major countries. There simply was no need for investment in costly machinery when labor was virtually free. The isolation of peasants and landowners due to the vast size of the country further diminished agrarian reform, as it prevented agricultural knowledge from spreading among the population. All of these factors caused Russian agriculture to remain reliant on antiquated methods of production, chiefly human labor. Russia experienced economic growth after the abolition of serfdom; however, growth rates were insufficient for the country and its agricultural sector to truly flourish.

Abolition of Serfdom and Economic Reforms

In Imperial Russia, serfdom held back the economic growth of the agricultural industry due to the outdated techniques and knowledge that were being practiced. And regions with a great serf population lagged behind in terms of their grain production. Once serfdom was abolished in 1861, economic effects remained modest, as grain production in the Russian Empire increased by an average of only 1.5% over the coming 20 years. This mild increase in productivity was later complemented by agrarian reforms put in place by Peter Stolypin, the prime minister of the Russian government from 1906-1910. His reforms marked the beginning of an important agricultural transition in the country. They created more favorable economic conditions for peasants and set Russia up for an economic expansion. However, Stolypin meant for the reforms to remain in place for 20 years, yet they hardly lasted for 10 due to the two Russian Revolutions of 1917.

Collectivization in the Soviet Union

After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Soviet agricultural output began to recover, but severe drought, economic turbulences post-revolution, and the effects of World War I left the country dealing with a severe famine that caused food production to severely lag behind demand. As grain production continued to decrease following the 1921-1922 famine, Stalin implemented the first of his Five-Year Plan in 1928 as an attempt to revive food and agriculture production. A key feature of the plan was the termination of the confiscation of agricultural surplus by the state in favor of a tax, as is common practice in market economies. While this reform stood in sharp contrast to Communist ideology but gave farmers more independence over selling their produce. With the implementation of this pivotal reform, food production in the crop year of 1927-28 recovered to the amount that Imperial Russia was producing in 1909-1913.

Poorly Made Tractors

Despite these reforms, the Soviet Union was no match for the U.S. and other major crop producing countries concerning per-farmer-output, as a lack of technical know-how, profit motive, and available machinery remained endemic in the communist system. However, Stalin initially thought it to be a betrayal of his own country and communist ideology alike to ask for aid from the nation’s capitalist rivals. The Soviet Union therefore first sought to replicate a key agricultural advancement without the necessary skills or knowledge. But it became exceedingly clear that their tractors were nowhere near efficient enough to help the farmers meet the production standards set for them by the state. Ultimately, the Soviet Union asked the United States for help, hoping to acquire the farming equipment and the means of producing it that could help revitalize the Soviet economy.

The Decisive Role of the Ford Motor Company

Between 1921 and 1927 alone, Ford exported about 25,000 tractors to the Soviet Union. Parallel to importing them, the Soviets began to copy them. In a plant in Leningrad, so-called Fordson-Putilovets tractors were manufactured at scale from 1924 onwards. Those replicas were of inferior quality to the original Ford tractors, in particular related to metallurgical issues around the hardness of the steel being used. The Soviets therefore continued ordering Ford tractors from the United States. By 1927, Ford held an 85% market share in the country. Within only 10 years -between 1924 to 1934- the number of tractors in the Soviet Union skyrocketed from merely 1,000 to about 200,000. Without US industrialists like Henry Ford, the agricultural revolution in the country would not have been possible.

Further Help from the U.S.

To increase the number of Soviet-built and reliable tractors, a new and efficient plant was soon raised from the ground near Stalingrad. This new plant was to have a production capacity of up to 40,000 tractors per year. And it was constructed with the help of American engineers. About 380 Americans were employed during the construction of the facility, with the plant being only the first of many that the Soviet Union acquired cooperation from Americans for. However, due to a lack of mechanical experience on the side of the Soviet workers, many of those facilities did not achieve their planned output until 3 years later.

America’s Excuse for its Support

The United States was willing to offer aid to the Soviet Union because of the expected economic benefits it would bring. The U.S. also set out to use the Soviet Union’s 5-Year Plans and New Economic Policies as potential experiments. At the time, the U.S. was dealing with an internal societal dilemma: As technology and modernization expanded rapidly, this progress clashed with the traditional cultural values that society was still holding on to across most of the country. The U.S. viewed closer economic and cultural ties with the Soviet Union as an experiment that could lead to a potential solution for this phase the country was experiencing. Moreover, as the U.S. federal government did not oppose lending a hand to the Soviets, so long as the benefits positively impacted the U.S. economically.