Mediterranean vector Soviet foreign trade in the 1920s

The purpose of the article is to clarify the features of Soviet foreign trade in the Mediterranean basin in the 1920s. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the Mediterranean Soviet foreign trade of the period of the new economic policy has never actually been a separate scientific and historical problem. Methods of research: chronological, historical-comparative, descriptive. The main results: established a list of Mediterranean countries with which the Soviet state maintained trade relations during the period of the new economic policy; clarified the commodity and raw materials nomenclature of export-import operations in the Mediterranean zone; it was established that one of the main reasons for the establishment by Western countries of trade relations with the Bolshevik state was the economic crisis of 1920-1921, which swept the West; At the end of the study period, the Soviet government used the Great Depression to exert economic pressure on Western countries; disclosed the dynamics of Soviet trade at that time in the southern direction; revealed the dependence of Soviet foreign trade on the political environment; analyzed the Ukrainian component of the Soviet Mediterranean trade of the 1920s, using the example of the southern direction of Soviet foreign trade, it is shown how Moscow gradually limited the economic independence of the Ukrainian SSR until its complete leveling. Practical significance: the results of the study can be recommended for use in synthetic works on the history of Ukraine, the USSR, foreign trade and international relations of the 1920s, the development of relevant academic disciplines and special courses. These materials can also be used to promote historical knowledge. Originality: the article is, in general, original, it was made taking into account the developments of domestic and foreign researchers, with the involvement of a significant array of documents from a number of Ukrainian and Russian archives. Scientific novelty: for the first time in domestic historiography the peculiarities of the Soviet foreign trade of the 1920s in the Mediterranean basin are characterized, and also the role in the corresponding processes of the Ukrainian SSR is. The scientific novelty of the work is also due to the introduction into scientific circulation of a significant complex of archival materials, primarily documents of various services and structures of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR. Type of article: overview.