The relevance of the presented study is determined by the fact that the development of the economies of the vast majority of countries in the world was significantly affected by the global technological crisis of the 2020s. At the same time, just as different people experience epidemiological diseases differently, market participants at the micro-, meso- and macroeconomic levels experience the impact of the economic crisis differently. From historical, theoretical-methodological and scientific-practical positions, it is of interest to consider the dynamics of overcoming the crisis of the 2020s by countries that had similar economic structures as a basic foundation - the socialist way of managing. At the same time, the dynamics of their export and import operations, demonstrating a change in the level of competitiveness of the countries in question, also give an idea of the impact of the crisis on various countries in comparative terms. The aim of the presented research is a comparative analysis of foreign economic activity of Russia and Poland as countries representing the former socialist camp. The scientific novelty of the obtained results lies in the demonstration, based on the processing of statistical data, of significant differences in the foreign economic activity of Russia and Poland in the last decade in terms of the pace of development of foreign economic activity, stability of trends in the dynamics and structure of exports. The practical significance of the obtained research lies in the possibility of their use in the formation and implementation of plans for foreign economic activity of the Russian Federation.