Fun fact but early on the USSR was importing most of their trucks from the US while they got things setup farther away from the front lines. US trucks helped Soviets supply their armies during the early days of the Eastern Front.
German trade with United States declined precipitously throughout the 1930s, and was essentially nonexistent after the war began. The US had even been planning a trade war with Germany over its economic policies in the mid-1930s, but was refused by the European powers and so backed down.
It’s important to differentiate when talking about the Lend-Lease Act when having a discussion about historical events. The U.S. at the time was neutral and not able to legally sell or give equipment to combatants. A loophole was created that no equipment was being sold or given away, it was being lent or leased to other countries.
Definitely since they later managed to get their out automobile production up enough to not be reliant on US truck imports. The fulfilled the demand with imports while working on building up domestic production.
By the end of the war 1/3 of the trucks in the Soviet military were Lend Lease trucks. They did increase production but still relied heavily on loaned equipment.
its weird how people slam the ussr for having smart purchases like this
like when the ussr was formed, they hired a lot of american engineers to help develop their industry
but somehow thats a knock on the soviets bc they couldnt just do it themselves
in reality, america was leading the world in industrial power bc of the land, resources and labor power at their disposal, matched by innovation and leadership of the time
any country wouldve been dumb to not recognize that
Funnily enough Japan did much of what modern China does where they buy foriegn tech and reverse engineer it. Japan knew they didn't have money to waste on experimental designs and just licensed someone else's before making their own with a few changes.
People shit on all the other nations that weren't the US too much and ignore that everyone was doing what they could with what they had and some were smart enough to realize they should just work with foreign powers instead of against them.
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u/Khajiistar 9d ago
Fun fact but early on the USSR was importing most of their trucks from the US while they got things setup farther away from the front lines. US trucks helped Soviets supply their armies during the early days of the Eastern Front.