It was a command economy, and the entire export surplus of those other items was probably committed to other trade purposes.

We're used to total fungible value of everything, but in the Soviet Union bartering with what you had to hand was far more necessary.

Possibly, but the Soviets were looking to offload the old ships anyway and it might have been easier to requisition the mothballed military hardware instead of materials the population needs.

At the time, no.

It depends on the lifecycles of the Soviets' assets because it was a bartering arrangement. Plus, gold could be stolen or skimmed, submarines were discrete units of barter that hopefully arrived in more or less one piece.

One of the problems with a military-focused command economy like the Soviet Union's was that consumer goods were in short supply and often not that high quality even when available. But consumer goods are needed to keep people happy. How to get them? The USSR's ruble was worthless on the world market -- only by exchanging goods could they get them.

Was blat the method of exchange?