Nationalization of Foreign Trade
Soviet of People's Commissars, Nationalization of Foreign Trade. April 22, 1918
Original Source: Sbornik dekretov i postanovlenii po narodnomu khoziaistvu. 25 oktiabria 1917 g.--25 oktiabria 1918 g. (Moscow, 1918), pp. 235-36.
I. All foreign trade is to be nationalized. Contracts with foreign -countries and foreign commercial houses for buying and selling all kinds of products (raw, industrial, agricultural, etc.) are to be made in the name of the Russian Republic by specially authorized organs. Aside from these organs all export and import agreements are forbidden.
Note: Regulations for the import and export of packages and travelers' baggage will be published separately.
II. The People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry is the organ in charge of nationalized foreign trade.
III. In connection with the People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry a Council of Foreign Trade is to be formed to organize exporting and importing. The Council is to be composed of representatives of the following departments, institutions, and organizations: (a) the departments of war, navy, agriculture, food, transportation, foreign affairs, and finance; (b) the central organs for the regulation and administration of the different branches of industry (central committees of the tea, sugar, textile industries, etc.) and all branches of the Supreme Council of National Economy; (c) the central organizations of cooperatives; (d) the central organizations of trade, industry, and agriculture; (e) the central organs of trade unions and unions of employees ; and (f) the central organs of commercial enterprises for the export and import of important products.
Note: The People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry has the right to include in the Council of Foreign Trade representatives of other organizations not mentioned in this decree.
IV. The Council of Foreign Trade will act upon the plans of foreign trade approved by the People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry.
The aims of the Council of Foreign Trade include: (a) keeping account of supply and demand of exports and imports ; (b) collecting goods for export, using the respective central bureaus of the different industries (sugar center, oil center, etc.), cooperatives or agencies established for that purpose; (c) organization of buying abroad through state buying commissions and agencies, cooperative organizations and commercial firms; (d) fixing of prices on exports and imports.
V. Council of Foreign Trade
The Council of Foreign Trade is to be divided into sections corresponding to each branch of industry and principal item of export and import. The chairman of each of these sections must be a representative of the People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry.
The chairman of the general meeting of the Council of Foreign Trade and of its presidium, which is elected at the general meeting, must be a representative of the People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry.
Note: The internal organization of the Council of Foreign Trade, the number of sections, their duties, rights, and scope of their activities will be determined later.
- The presidium of the Council will submit the decisions of the sections to the People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry for approval.
VI. The present decree will become effective from the moment of its publication.
V. UL'IANOV (LENIN) President of the Soviet of People's Commissars
GUKOVSKII, BRONSKII, STALIN, CHICHERIN People's Commissars
Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 617-618.