For the last 1.000 days we have traded very large amounts of cash and goods with other nations in a bid to get the most out of our Industry, and our resources. The followed strategy was to sell excess resources to pay for supplies, so we could expand our industrial base and our Army instead of producing supplies. This strategy still stands, although it has been toned down slightly by the increase in size of the Army and the Industrial base.
These factors pushed us to produce some supplies of our own to fill the growing needs of the Red Army, as getting extra cash was becoming hard as our Industrial expansion was eating into our excess resources, making it necessary to cancel some lucrative trade deals to maintain strategic reserves of Rare Materials and Metals.
Trade deals have been handled in a very technocratic manner, we traded with any country that would offer us a lucrative trade deal. Some deals were negotiated by our small team of diplomats, but as most of our leadership is invested elsewhere, this was quite a rare occurrence.
I will now run through the general figures indicating the Volume and lucrativeness of our trade since the 5th of January 1937:
Imports (Total Volume bought / Total amount of money spent / Average cost (Volume / Money) ):
Supplies: 92.166 Tonnes / 15.805 million roubles / 5,83 Tonnes / million Roubles
Our biggest supplier was Germany with more than 44k Tonnes delivered.
To pay for all of this we obviously had to sell a lot of goods:
Exports (Total Volume sold / Total amount of money received/ Average cost (Volume / Money) ):
Rare Materials: 32.715 Tonnes / 4.781 Million Roubles / 6.84 Tonnes / million Roubles
Germany was the biggest buyer with 30.626.3 Tonnes purchased.
Energy: 68.603 Tonnes / 2.554,4 Million Roubles / 26.86 Tonnes / million Rouble
Japan was the biggest buyer with 20.500 Tonnes purchased.
Fuel: 2.402 Barrels / 1.290,3 Million Roubles / 1.86 Barrels / million Roubles
Yugoslavia was the biggest buyer with 2.010 Barrels purchased.
Metal: 13.354 Tonnes / 934,57 Million Roubles / 14.29 Tonnes / million Roubles
Hungary was the biggest buyer with 4.502,54 Tonnes purchased.
Crude Oil: 667,88 Barrels / 373,56 Million Roubles / 1.79 Barrels / million Roubles
Austria was the only buyer, until the Anschluss, then there was no more demand for our Crude.(Germany later on started buying fuel to plug the gap)
As you can clearly see, we have a large amount of uncertainty about our neighbour's allegiances in the future. I will now run through the strategic implications of them choosing the wrong faction,and the implications of making their minds up for them...
Our neighbours on a map:
Finland:
We are just waiting for the right moment to demand they give 'back' Karelia to us.
Annexing Finland would greatly shorten our Scandinavian border, and thus a reduced need for troops manning it.
No one knows what Finland would do in case of war with the Axis. They are currently being Influenced by the Germans, but still pretty far away from joining.
The Baltic States:
They are up for grabs within the parameters of the Molotov-von Neurath deal, so we could probably overrun them, once we claim our half of Poland.
All three are very slowly moving towards the Axis, they are too far away to join within the next few years however.
Poland:
About to lose the war to Germany, we will be getting half of it. On the plus side we will gain resources, manpower and Industry. The downside is a border with Germany, and Germany also gains resources, manpower, and Industry.
Romania:
They are mostly important as a big source of oil and fuel, not for us, but for resource-deprived countries like Germany, Italy and France.
Still undecided on the diplomatic front, right in the middle between Axis and Allies.
We still need to recuperate Bessarabia from them, but don't expect this to be a problem.
Taking over Romania would actually lengthen our border, but it would provide additional black sea ports and direct control of their refineries.
Turkey:
They are trying to stay neutral, but if the Axis started a influencing campaign, there is a good chance they will join sooner rather than later.
Turkey is of great strategic importance for our navy, as it controls our access to the Mediterranean, and the rest of the world's Oceans from our only ice-free Naval Base of Sevastopol.
Conquering Turkey would five us control over the Bosphorus, and shorten our West-facing border to 2 provinces. It also means a direct border with the Allies in the Middle East.
Persia:
Like Romania a country with a lot of oil, but this one is currently growing ever more friendly with the Axis, which is rather worrying.
Besides oil they have prime access to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, which could provide an alternative to basing our main fleet in Sevastopol if we were to conquer their ports.
Taking Persia would be very threatening to the Allies, as it also represents the only land link between their Indian, and their Middle-Eastern holdings.
Afghanistan:
Mountains with nothing of real interest.
Sinkiang:
Our only potential future ally for now, mostly desert, and with a very small industry not much of a threat whether working for, or against us.
Mongolia:
Our biggest puppet state, they have a border with Mengkukuo, small warlord puppet state of Japan
Manchuckuo:
Puppet of Japan with a very long shared border, they have mostly militia and Cavalry with outdated weapons, they are still a huge threat as they provide an excellent staging ground for the IJA.
Japan:
They have only a very short border with us, but this is extended hugely by the borders of Manchukuo and Mengkukuo. They have made peace with the Chinese, and most of their experienced army seems to be sitting Idle on our borders. This is the main reason we cannot afford to declare war on any Axis member right now, as the defensive clause in their alliance would mean a stab in the back from the IJA. Luckily there isn't much of interest in our Siberian lands, and we hope this will turn Japanese attention away from us.
War with Japan would also mean that Vladivostok is in danger of Encirclement. Any ships we have in Vladivostok would probably not be enough to fight off the large and modern IJN so close to the Japanese homeland. Let us hope they do something incredibly stupid, like going to war with the Allies and/or the US, relieving the huge existing pressure on our borders and diverting Japanese attention away from it.