Except the truth is far less clear. Look up Lenin's train full of gold and how Trotsky made his way back to Russia through several countries despite being a wa

Except the truth is far less clear. Look up Lenin's train full of gold and how Trotsky made his way back to Russia through several countries despite being a wanted criminal.. or the actual start of the war w/r/t austrian occupation of serbia and nicholas II's slavic brotherhood movement and things become far more murky as to who 'the west' was backing.. esp. when one considers what position russia would have been in in to negotiate with the fallen ottomans and what that would mean for french/british hegemony in the near east.. As for afterwords - the USSR still traded with the west, and some people still made money.. look into the NEP beyond seeing it as a curious historical footnote and it too is not so clear.. Funny, kind of sounds like the last 20 years or so... hmm..