Notes
1. I am indebted to Gareth Dale for encouraging me to think more about this aspect of the USSR's weakness.
2. See Luke Citation1985 for a good historical survey of “Russia” in this context.
3. It is important to remember that larger countries generally have smaller trade shares. Maddison gives the export share for the US in 1913 as 3.7%. For 1950 it is 3.0%, rising to 5% in 1977 and 8.2% in 1992.