Development of economic and scientific-technical cooperation between the USSR and CMEA member countries at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s

This publication, using declassified archival documents from the collection of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, examines the development of economic, scientific, and technical cooperation between the USSR and CMEA member countries in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It concludes that objective conditions had emerged that facilitated the intensification of integration processes within the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. The events of 1968 in Czechoslovakia can be rightfully considered a catalyst for these processes, but the determining factors were the pressing problems within CMEA in the areas of planning and pricing that needed to be addressed as quickly as possible. Party and state governance methods also played a role. A study of the positions of the allied countries reveals that the leadership of the Polish People's Republic was the most active initiator of the development and implementation of a special comprehensive program aimed at strengthening coordination and integration within the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). Information contained in the reports and documents of planning bodies suggests that the established mechanism significantly increased trade turnover, created joint ventures, and intensified scientific and technical exchange. Overall, the reorganizations proved their effectiveness. An example was the interaction between the Polish People's Republic and the USSR, particularly in the area of Soviet hydrocarbon supplies in excess of planned volumes and the provision of loans. In turn, the volumes of machinery and equipment supplied from the Polish People's Republic to the USSR, as well as pipes of the required diameter for oil pipelines, increased. However, the CMEA countries largely developed import-substituting, low-tech, low-volume production systems characterized by high costs. Structural restructuring failed, innovation processes were stalled, and technological backwardness grew.