This paper describes and analyses the development of Swedish exports to the Soviet Union during the perestroika period, both in general and with regard to the specific case of the coastal trade between these countries using the Uppsala model's concepts of learning, the liability of foreignness, and the liability of outsidership. During this period the Soviet foreign trade system went through a significant reorganisation, with foreign trade being decentralised and newactorsbeing established, although the source material indicates that this decentralisation was less disruptive to the coastal trade than in general. It concludes that the different outcomes seen in these cases could be attributed to the coastal trade being less affected by the liability of outsidership than the general case. With regard to learning, it concludes that experiential knowledge, both from personal experience and network sources, is necessary in order to evaluate objective knowledge, as this can also be seen in the source material.