Prologue

Summary

Despite reports to that effect, the grain crisis of 1963 did not introduce the Soviet Union to global trade. The crisis, however, did epitomize the kinds of problems the Soviets encountered in their drive to intensify their engagement with global exchange. Coming as it did in the compartmentalized world of Bretton Woods, the negotiations to import large amounts of grain from Canada and the United States subjected the Soviets to deal-making practices that ran through political agents rather than market agents. It illustrated for the Soviets the gains that could be made in setting these practices on a market basis. It also showed the extent to which the creation of the kind of market relations the Soviets aspired to undermined North American labor interests, a dynamic that became a feature of the post–Bretton Woods era – and which had the Soviet Union for an ally.