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50 years in the past this summer time, Soviet brokers traveled to North America in the course of the Chilly Battle and secretly purchased huge quantities of grain, driving up world costs in one of the important occasions within the historical past of commodity buying and selling — later dubbed the “Nice Grain Theft.”
Russ Crawford, who had a front-row seat as a rookie in grain buying and selling at Cargill, has introduced the story from the early ’70s to life in a brand new guide entitled “Restrict Up,” and he joins us for this new RealAg Ebook Membership episode.
Thrilling suspense, excessive stakes, worldwide drama — the story of how the Soviets, determined to import grain as a result of widespread drought again house, pulled off the simultaneous buy of tens of millions of bushels of grain from a number of sellers within the U.S. and Canada (together with the Canadian Wheat Board) has many parts of a terrific story.
“I actually wished to inform the story for 2 audiences, for individuals who had been part of it, who knew it, and keep in mind it, however extra importantly for those who have heard about it, however don’t have an actual good concept of what really occurred, who was concerned, and what the circumstances had been,” says Crawford.
A number of the characters, together with the primary Soviet — Misha Fisenko — are fictional or a mix of actual individuals, however many of the story is predicated on first-hand accounts and firm histories, he notes.
“I took a bit little bit of literary license, however many of the guide is factual. The individuals which can be named, 90 per cent of them are actual individuals,” says Crawford.
For instance, Cargill’s essential contact in Winnipeg — each within the guide and in actuality — was Dick Dawson, who personally shared a lot of tales with Crawford which can be included within the guide. Frank Rowan on the Canadian Wheat Board, Jim McCrea, the rookie grain dealer at Cargill’s well-known Lake Workplace outdoors Minneapolis, and representatives from different grain firms, together with Continental, Louis Dreyfus, and others, are additionally featured all through Crawford’s model of the occasion.
The Russian protagonist Fisenko, who negotiates with the grain firms in North America on behalf of Exportkhleb, is fictional, however primarily primarily based on the real-life Leonid Kalitenko. (Crawford says he gave Fisenko the primary identify “Misha” as a tribute to a Russian hockey participant who billeted at his place.)
The locations referenced in “Restrict Up” had been additionally the unique scenes of what was later dubbed the Nice Grain Theft, as Crawford takes readers from the Volga Plain in south Russia to the Madison Resort in Washington, DC to the Velvet Glove lounge in downtown Winnipeg.
Via all of it, Crawford weaves in explanations and context about how commodity markets work, authorities insurance policies of the day, and why the Soviets had been capable of pull off their huge buy.
Writer Russ Crawford joins the RealAg Ebook Membership to debate the writing of “Restrict Up,” classes discovered from this time in historical past, and to simply reminisce about among the nice tales and characters concerned within the Nice Grain Theft:
Not solely is the guide well timed with the fiftieth anniversary approaching, some specialists have harkened again to the Nice Grain Theft when discussing the grain provide shock that’s anticipated on account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
“One was a drought. This one is a battle, however the finish result’s there’s a disruption within the circulate of commodities. There’s a risk of an absence of manufacturing. This wasn’t a one 12 months occasion in 1972. It trickled on for years after that, with markets growing in worth,” notes Crawford.
With out sharing any spoilers, the ending of the guide additionally contains some plot twists which will or might not have occurred in actuality, after everybody realizes what has occurred.
“There are some nuggets of clues alongside the best way to maintain you intrigued, however all is revealed, I’ll go away it at that,” says Crawford. “It’s a enjoyable story. It was nice enjoyable to write down.”
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