Soviet authorities in 1987-1991 tried to encourage the union republics to use their diplomatic apparatuses, created by Stalin in 1944, to solicit foreign economic trade and aid. In many cases, union republics were able to draw upon diplomatic precedents established during the early Soviet period, or when they were independent states in the period 1918-1921. The many international contacts and ties the former union republics had established abroad helped them to promptly gain diplomatic recognition and establish diplomatic relations with many foreign states, mitigating to some degree the shock to the world order caused by the breakup of the Soviet Union.