Welcome, or Welcome to the Exit: Soviet and Foreign Press in Discussions of the USSR Concession Program, 1922–1933

The concession program of the USSR, announced after the end of the Civil War and foreign intervention, was caused by the destruction of the national economy, shortage of goods, and unemployment. Specialized magazines, as well as on the pages of newspapers covered the discussions of experts who explained the goals of the policy. The new course aroused the interest of foreign firms and companies in need of raw materials and markets. The program attracted special attention from German merchants, supported by their government, because of the restrictions on national industry under the terms of the post-war European order. In the pages of the Soviet press, the image of the foreign investor went from a valuable participant in the reconstruction process to a bourgeois capitalist who had fraudulently returned to Soviet Russia. In 1928, mass criticism of the rules established by foreign businessmen began. The authors of the publications emphasize the negative impact of the concession administration on workers and Soviet organizations involved in their activities. Most of the materials published in the trade union press belong to the feuilleton genre. The main party newspaper Pravda published reviews and reports of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate with an emphasis on the socio-political nature of foreign enterprises and their alienness to the Soviet economic system. Representatives of Soviet concession commissions used the Western press to attract foreign capital and technology to the USSR. Concessionaires from Western countries used newspapers to put pressure on the Soviet government. The Western Information Service of the Main Concession Committee of the USSR carefully studied economic periodicals, since they published information that differed from the content of the reports of concession enterprises.