ABSTRACT
Although the Bolshevists look at the industrial position with an optimism which strikes an outsider as inexplicable and which doubtless is not so very deep-rooted, they do not, on the other hand, hide their anxiety at the difficulty of putting commercial negotiations on a satisfactory basis. Private trading was forbidden; the State, by means of its organization, created for this special purpose, would without the medium of money, negotiate an interchange between the town manufactured goods and the country agricultural produce. From the very moment when the Government, in 1921, with a grand flourish invited private enterprise to enter the market, they tried all available means to ensure its keeping in the modest place reserved for it. By heavy taxes, difficult credit conditions, administrative annoyances, etc., the authorities endeavoured in every way to reduce its power of competition. The years immediately following 1921 mark a steady increase of severity in their policy with regard to the private traders.
