Those shipments prior to '42 were not Lend Lease. They were Cash and carry. Russia had to pay for the merchandise prior to delivery.
One thing to point out, after September 3 1939 the Germans could sink English flag vessels at will. US vessells were protected neutral ships. Why fly the Union Jack
The US sold and shipped goods to everyone prior to her entry in the war.
The US forgave all Lend Lease debts in the late '40's. The repayments that were made were really of no consequence and can be written off as actual non-payments, as far more Marshall Plan money was flowing into each one of the paying countries than their debt repayments. Those Marshall plan debts were also later forgotten. The repayments were factored into a countries Marshall plan benefit, no so one actually paid. As they couldnt afford to.
I have always heard that Russian debt repayments were token and small, not nearly a third of actual debt. Thomas in his Cold War beginnings treatise, Armed Truce, states this. If you have any more info I would like to read it, as post war relations are of great interest to me. Stalin thought it a slap in the face that the US would even ask for the money after all the Russian blood spilled on the East Front.
The US emerged on top for a single reason.
It was the only world power whose infrastructure, production facilities, and capital were not destroyed by the war. US native soil was shelled by a single submarine and subjected too two attempted forest fire bombs. Compare this to the damage inflicted on every other industrial nation on the planet, and those countries loss of capital and life compared to relative US losses.
[ 30 October 2001: Message edited by: talleyrand ]