Soviet oil exports in the 1950s and 1960s alongside the changes in the international arena and COMECON activities

The article is devoted to problems of development of the Soviet oil export in 1950-1960s. The declassified documents of the USSR State Planning Committee (GOSPLAN), its Department of Foreign Trade and Department of Heavy industry as well as the materials of COMECON, primarily the materials of Chancellery and of the COMECON Standing Commission on oil and gas industry are widely used in the article. Almost all archival documents used in the article are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The purpose of the article is to identify the reasons for the resumption of oil exports from the USSR, changes in the export structure, manifested in the transition from the export of petroleum products to the export of crude oil. According to the studied documents, the significant influence of the socialist bloc countries with an unresolved fuel problem on the increase in oil production and the expansion of oil export from the USSR can be traced. Among the methods of scientific analysis, the historical-comparative method is used. This method is used to compare the behavior patterns on the world stage in the period under review of the USSR and the United States, which have embarked on the path of expanding their presence in the European market, as well as started the construction of large international pipeline systems. The response to the construction of the TRANS-Arabian oil pipeline from the Middle East was the construction of the Druzhba oil pipeline. Among the methods used by the authors there is the problem-chronological method, which allowed us to consider the problems in the historical development, as well as the historical-genetic method associated with the identification of the causality of the phenomena under consideration. When determining the reasons for the formation of Soviet oil exports to Europe in the post-war period, the connection is traced with the need to solve the fuel and energy problem of the “people’s democracy” countries. The shortage of fuel resources, initially manifested in the lack of coal, generated contradictions within the socialist bloc. The difficulties of functioning of the block were clearly marked by the mid-1950s. The authors conclude that this influenced the decision to increase the export of oil to the COMECON countries, and set the task of constructing a main oil pipeline from the USSR to Europe. COMECON members initially began to link the supply of oil from the USSR with the development of oil refineries in their countries. The raw materials of the USSR, and above all hydrocarbons - oil, coal, and gas - aroused significant interest of our allies. Already at the stage of construction of the Druzhba oil pipeline, the Soviet Union was under strong pressure from such COMECON members as the PNR, Czechoslovak, GDR, and VNR, who were very interested in increasing oil supplies. The authors do not exclude the influence of domestic strategic settings on the expansion of oil exports, as well as the geopolitical aspirations of the Soviet Union. The beginning of oil and soon gas production in Western Siberia helped to solve the problem of exporting hydrocarbons.

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