Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

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The Communist Party of the Soviet Union faced formidable impediments in its attempt to transform the Russian Empire in accordance with socialistic ideology. Traditional attitudes persisted among the people; economic production was at times inadequate for the subsistence needs of the population; and new institutions and programs themselves engendered massive administrative burdens. Nevertheless, fundamental changes were wrought in the economic, political, social, and legal activities of the country.

Soviet zeal was not limited to domestic affairs. Denunciation of the "capitalistic" system of world trade was complemented by a vision of a more favorable socialistic system. But to the dismay of the leaders of the Soviet Union in its first decades, foreign trade required accommodation to the ways of recalcitrant merchants of strong Western states. International commercial activity proved even less amenable than internal affairs to the designs of the Bolshevik Revolution.

It is the object of this essay to analyze the impact on international trade and private international law of the Foreign Trade Arbitration Commission of the All-Union Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.S.R. (hereinafter referred to as the FTAC or, simply, the Commission).