What were relations like between the US and te Soviet Union prior to World War II? Was there trade between the nations?
Please move to GQ.
Fairly remote. The United States didn’t recognize the Soviet government until 1933. Throughout the twenties neither power really had much reason to deal with each other. The only major incident between the two countries had been that the United States was one of the countries that had intervened during the Russian Civil War on the “white” side.
Stalin first signed a treaty with Hitler in the hopes of avoiding German invasion. That didn’t work out, so Stalin was stuck with being on our side. Hitler really screwed up on this one. If you saw the movie “Patton” you’ll remember he wanted the allies to advance against Russia while all our troops were assembled. Turn either of those facts around and the last part of the 20th century would have been much different. We’re probably better off the way it all turned out.