00:00A logical question. If Albert Kahn and his brother did so much for Soviet industrialization,
00:05then why isn't Albert Kahn Associates Inc. mentioned in history textbooks? The answer is
00:10simple. Money. The $2 billion allocated by Albert Kahn's company for industrialization in the USSR
00:17were earned by the country through selling grain. Stalin wrote to Molotov in August 1930. Mikoyan
00:22reports. That the procurements are increasing and every day we are exporting 1 to 1.5 million
00:27poods of grain. I think that's not enough. We need to raise the daily export quota to at least 3
00:33to 4
00:33million poods right now. Otherwise, we risk being left without our new metallurgical and machine
00:38building plants. In short, we need to urgently accelerate the export of grain. And the export
00:43was accelerated. In 1930, they sent abroad a total of 4.8 million tons of grain and in 1931 already
00:495.2 million. At the same time, harvest yields were decreasing while the country's needs were growing.
00:55The leadership of the USSR began to realize that industrialization was becoming too expensive.
01:00The famine of 1932-1933 in the USSR was partly the result of miscalculations and mistakes by the
01:05country's leadership during the process of collectivization. In August 1931, Scalin wrote
01:10to Kaganovich, Due to currency difficulties and unacceptable credit terms in America,
01:14I am against any new orders placed with American suppliers. I propose to prohibit placing any new
01:19orders with America, to break off any ongoing negotiations about new orders, and, if possible,
01:24to terminate already concluded contracts for previous orders, transferring the orders to Europe
01:28or to our own factories. I propose not to make any exceptions to this rule, not for Magnitogorsk
01:33and Kuznet-Stroy, nor for Kharkov-Stroy, then Prostroy, LMO, or Avto-Stroy.
01:38Lazar Kaganovich, after some time, writes a response letter.
01:43It turned out that 80 to 90 orders for Chelyab-Stroy can be placed in England.
01:47From this moment, the USSR begins to reorient toward Europe, and the expired contract with the
01:52Americans is not renewed. Albert Kahn's attempt to personally secure the continuation of cooperation
01:56was unsuccessful in Moscow, and the company's employees left Moscow.
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