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p The expansion and improvement of relations within the socialist community at the end of the 1950s facilitated the new and big successes of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries in economic and political development, the effective resistance to imperialist aggressive schemes, the strengthening and consolidation of peace-loving forces, and the lessening of international tension.

p Economic co-operation between socialist countries, particularly within CMEA, further developed. In June 1962 and in July 1963 conferences of CMEA heads of state discussed the tasks of further co-operation and approved the " Fundamental Principles of International Socialist Division of Labour”. Co-ordination of economic plans became the basis of CMEA work. A number of important problems concerning guaranteed supplies to CMEA members of oil, coking coal, iron ore, non-ferrous metals and plant were resolved within the CMEA framework. Such projects as the Friendship oil pipeline and the integrated Peace power grid, and the Brotherhood gas pipeline play an important part. CMEA activity has greatly stimulated the economies of its members. Between 1951 and 1969, the aggregate national income of CMEA members increased virtually 4.5 times: the volume of industrial output was 6.3 times greater in 1969 than in 1950. The share of CMEA countries in world industrial production grew from 18 per cent in 1950 to 33 per cent in 1970 (it is worth recalling that in 1937, on the territory of the countries that are today members of CMEA, some 15 per cent of world industrial production was recorded).

p As the role of the world socialist community grows, so do the importance of mutual relations between its members and the responsibility of each socialist country for pursuing a correct foreign and home policy, for preserving and developing friendship and unity of all socialist states, thus guaranteeing their unity in the face of world imperialism. “Complete 273 victory over capitalism cannot be won,” Lenin once noted, “unless the proletariat and, following it, the mass of working people in all countries and nations throughout the world voluntarily strive for alliance and unity.”  [273•* 

p Lenin’s study of the reasons for divergent opinions in the international workers’ movement is essential for comprehending the complex processes in the socialist community today. Lenin said: “One of the most profound causes that periodically give rise to differences over tactics is the very growth of the labour movement.”

p And further on: “The enlistment of larger and larger numbers of new ’recruits’, the attraction of new sections of the working people must inevitably be accompanied by waverings in the sphere of theory and tactics, by repetitions of old mistakes, by a temporary reversion to antiquated views and antiquated methods, and so forth.”  [273•** 

p Subjectivism, nationalism and Right- and “Left”-wing opportunism in the policies of leading statesmen are incompatible with Marxism-Leninism. They cause considerable harm both to the interests of that particular country and the overall positions of socialism.

p The change in the position of the Chinese Communist leaders to that of Great-Power chauvinism and hegemonism, the splitting anti-Soviet policy of the Maoists within the socialist community and the international communist movement, have had very adverse effects. This shift in policy was accompanied by an ideological campaign behind which lay a revision of the fundamental principles of MarxismLeninism, including the principles of proletarian internationalism.

p The Chinese leaders, as pointed in the Report of the CPSU Central Committee to the 24 CPSU Congress, "have put forward an ideological-political platform of their own which is incompatible with Leninism on the key questions of international life and the world communist movement, and have demanded that we should abandon the line of the 20th Congress and the Programme of the CPSU. They 274 unfolded an intensive and hostile propaganda campaign against our Party and country, made territorial claims on the Soviet Union, and in the spring and summer of 1969 brought things to the point of armed incidents along the border.”  [274•* 

p At the same time as the Maoists endangered SovietChinese relations through their splitting policy, the Albanian Government broke off normal relations with the Soviet Union and other European socialist countries, and stopped co-operating with them within the Warsaw Treaty and CMEA.

p The line of socialist construction in isolation, detached from the world community of socialist countries, is theoretically untenable, harmful economically, and reactionary and dangerous politically. Events have fully borne out these propositions formulated in the CPSU Programme.  [274•**  The penetration of petty-bourgeois nationalist ideology into individual Communist Parties can be extremely damaging to the interests of world socialism and can worsen international and inter-state relations.

p The possibility of nationalist tendencies arising and being manifest in individual socialist countries is due both to reasons connected with their internal development and to the foreign policy situation. Although it may sound paradoxical, it is also due to the overall world balance of power being favourable to world socialism. The vast military strength of the Soviet Union stops the aggressive imperialist circles from counting on any success through armed aggression against any socialist countries. Socialist states, therefore, are shielded by Soviet might against a direct threat from imperialism and have a greater opportunity to act independently in world affairs.

p Imperialist politicians are aware of these circumstances and are stepping up their attempts to weaken co-operation between the socialist countries, to blunt their vigilance through more flexible methods of the “bridge-building” 275 type. These shifts in imperialist strategy and tactics are designed to fan nationalistic emotions and to increase disagreements within the socialist community. Imperialism, playing on the sincere interest of socialist states to promote relations with Western powers on the principles of peaceful coexistence, today makes an important stake on “peaceful penetration”, “the evolution of communist regimes”, and “erosion of the socialist community”.

p Typically, most bourgeois writers, motivated by the need for a more flexible and subtle policy, are well aware of the solidity of socialist positions. The authors of the book Eastern Europe in Transition, published in 1966, describe the manifestations of nationalism in the European socialist states as a temporary phenomenon and note their difference from the bourgeois understanding of nationalism. They have this to say: “Nationalism, in the traditional Western sense of the word, is different from nationalism in a country dominated by a Communist Party. This difference expresses itself in form, content and goals. In any event, there was in Eastern Europe no particular desire to return to the ‘good old days’.”  [275•* 

p In the countries that are building socialism, however, anti-socialist elements that have remained there to some degree can in certain conditions grow active, and, counting on outside support from imperialism, take their opposition as far as direct counter-revolutionary actions. This was apparent, in particular, in the political events of 1968 in Czechoslovakia.

p The strength and effectiveness of the internationalist solidarity of socialist countries frustrated the attempt by the remnants of the former exploiting classes in alliance with Right-wing opportunists and with support from world imperialism to destroy the fundamentals of the socialist system in Czechoslovakia, to isolate it from fraternal countries and thereby to deal a heavy blow at the socialist positions in Europe.

p The new political hopes of US reactionary circles in the battle against socialism have received particularly clear-cut 276 expression in relation to the Chinese People’s Republic. The minute the Chinese leadership took an anti-Soviet stance the US attitude to it changed noticeably. In these circumstances the importance of the principled Leninist position by the CPSU on Soviet-Chinese relations is increasingly obvious as a position of consistent defence of the principles of MarxismLeninism, all-round strengthening of the unity of the world communist movement and defence of the interests of the Soviet Union.

p The CPSU Central Committee and the Soviet Government are waging a principled battle against the splitting activity of the present Chinese leaders and conduct a policy of reestablishing and furthering friendly relations with China based on the view that the vital, long-term interests of the Soviet and Chinese peoples coincide. Leonid Brezhnev said in his report at the Lenin centenary celebrations: “It is precisely by jointly following the road charted by Lenin, by waging a joint struggle against the sinister forces of imperialist reaction, for the triumph of the sacred cause of socialism and communism that the correct prospect is opened for the future development of relations between China and the Soviet Union, and between China and other socialist countries.”  [276•* 

p The CPSU has roundly condemned the slanderous attacks by Chinese propaganda on the policies of our Party and state, and at the same time the CPSU advocates a normalisation of Soviet-Chinese relations and the restoration of good-neighbourliness and friendship between the Soviet and Chinese peoples. The 24th Congress of the CPSU said: “Improvement of relations between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China would meet the vital, longterm interests of both countries, the interests of world socialism, the interests of intensifying the struggle against imperialism.”  [276•** 

p Although there have been some difficulties and complications, the dominant trend in mutual relations between socialist states is to strengthen friendship and co-operation. 277 This rests on a solid objective base, above all, the profound community of vital interests and aims, the trend, mentioned by Lenin, towards the internationalisation of economies which is growing from strength to strength. Lenin pointed out that “internationalism, the amalgamation of all nations in the higher unity ... is growing . . . with every mile of railway line that is built, with every international trust, and every workers’ association that is formed (an association that is international in its economic activities as well as in its ideas and aims).”  [277•* 

p The objective demands of further development in world socialism, especially with the scientific and technological revolution in progress, insistently require closer political, economic, scientific and technological co-operation on the scale of the entire socialist system. The possibilities today of guaranteeing an effective development of productive forces along the lines of autarchy are sharply limited, especially for small states.

p The facts on the scale and benefit of economic co– operation among the fraternal socialist states speak for themselves. From 1966 to 1970, more than 300 industrial and agricultural projects were built or modernised in the socialist countries with Soviet technical assistance, and many types of industrial products were supplied by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union satisfies in excess of 70 per cent of the needs of the CMEA countries, Cuba, and, to a large extent, North Vietnam and North Korea in the imports of many important raw materials and fuels.

p In turn, CMEA members delivered to the Soviet Union equipment for 54 chemical plants and 38 per cent of the tonnage of merchant ships that the Soviet Union has acquired in the last five years. They take part through capital investment in the development of the Soviet raw material and fuel industries, in expanding production of metals, mineral fertiliser and cellulose, and supply many consumer goods.

p The International Economic Co-operation Bank is successfully operating and the CMEA General Investment Bank recently began to function.

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p Problems of further economic co-operation between socialist countries were studied at the 23rd extraordinary (April 1969) and at subsequent meetings of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. In evaluating the present stage of socialist and communist construction in their countries, the meeting participants unanimously emphasised the need to improve existing forms and methods of economic co– operation and to seek new and more effective forms. Economic co-operation must become even more effective and help better to resolve the tasks confronting each member and the community as a whole. This will help to strengthen the world socialist system, to gain victory in the economic competition with capitalism and to attain new successes in the struggle against imperialism. Socialist economic integration of CMEA countries, which is being implemented under the leadership of Marxist-Leninist parties, is based on the principles of socialist internationalism, complete equality, respect for sovereignty and national interests, mutual benefit and comradely mutual assistance.

p The 1969 Moscow Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties stressed the immense international importance of the economic coming together of socialist countries: “One of the most important tasks before the Communist and Workers’ Parties of the socialist countries is to develop allembracing co-operation between their countries and ensure fresh successes in the decisive areas of the economic competition between the two systems, in the advance of science and technology. As the struggle between the two world systems grows sharper, this competition demands that, on the basis of the socialist countries’ fundamental interests and aims and of the Marxist-Leninist principles underlying their policy, the socialist system should place greater reliance on the international socialist division of labour and voluntary co-operation between them, which rules out any infringement of national interests, and ensures the advance of each country and consolidates the might of the world socialist system as a whole.”  [278•* 

279

p The 24th CPSU Congress outlined broad prospects for economic and scientific co-operation between the socialist countries. In particular, Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin noted in his report that deliveries of many types of goods by Soviet industry to the CMEA countries will increase substantially. For example, oil deliveries will go up from 138 million tons in 1966–1970 to 243 million tons in the Ninth Five-Year Plan, natural gas—correspondingly from 8,000 million cubic metres to 33,000 million cubic metres, electricity—from 14,000 million kwh to 42,000 million kwh, iron ore (in tons of metal)—from 72 million tons to 94 million tons. Under the current five-year plan, the Soviet Union will import from the CMEA countries 1,300 million rubles’ worth of plant for its chemical industry, nearly 3,000 million rubles’ worth of its railway and water-borne transport facilities and manufactured consumer goods to the value of over 8,500 million rubles.  [279•* 

p The Directives of the Congress set the following task for the five-year economic development plan for 1971–1975: “Economic, scientific and technical ties between the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, aimed at further strengthening co-operation and consistently promoting the economic integration of the CMEA countries, shall be improved and extended in every way. Comprehensive forms of co-operation with other socialist countries encompassing the spheres of material production, science and technology, mutual trade and trade on the markets of third countries, shall be developed in a planned way.”  [279•** 

p The firm resolution of the socialist countries to implement the long-term fundamental aims of their all-round fraternal co-operation was expressed in the Comprehensive Programme for further co-operation and socialist integration that was unanimously adopted at the 25th CMEA Session.

p Military and political factors and the interests of peace and security also demand a stronger unity of socialist states. The words of Lenin are particularly relevant here. In 280 substantiating the need to preserve and strengthen the Union of Socialist Republics Lenin wrote: “Of this there can be no doubt. This measure is necessary for us and it is necessary for the world communist proletariat in its struggle against the world bourgeoisie and its defence against bourgeois intrigues.”  [280•*  True to Lenin’s behests, Communists today see the defence of socialism as their supreme internationalist duty.

p The unity of the socialist countries by no means hampers overall international co-operation and development of peaceful coexistence between countries with different social systems. Close co-operation between the socialist countries combined with concerted action by all progressive forces in the efforts for peace and against imperialism is an important condition for successfully resolving the historic task of averting a nuclear world war.

p Unity on the main issues, dictated by the vital interests of peace and socialism, does not exclude particular differences and attention to national feelings and the specific conditions in individual countries. This unity cannot be imposed from above, it cannot be “decreed”, one has to, as Lenin said, “work towards it”. Lenin underlines the importance of “effectively organised democratic relations between nations" in his appeal to “unite and merge the nations not by the force of the ruble, not by the force of the truncheon, not by violence, but by voluntary agreement and solidarity of the working people against the exploiters”.  [280•** 

p At the present stage of development, it is immensely relevant to secure a correct balance of the common interests and the specifically national interests; of the interests of the world socialist system as a whole and the interests of each of its members. The importance of these issues is all the greater because as the positions of socialism in the world expand and strengthen, the variety of the specific forms of development in individual countries will inevitably grow.

p Successful settlement of the problems of mutual relations between socialist states is only possible on the basis of a 281 creative Marxist-Leninist approach. This demands the concerted efforts of the Communist and Workers’ parties.

p Important milestones along the road to further consolidation of the socialist community are the treaties of friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance signed between the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. These treaties express the community of vital interests of the socialist countries.

p Bilateral and multilateral summit meetings, long a regular feature of the relations among the fraternal socialist countries, have fully proved their worth. Direct friendly contacts between leaders of the fraternal parties make for closer cooperation among the socialist countries and help to strengthen the unity of the Communist and Workers’ Parties in upholding the ideals of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.

p The 1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties underlined the importance of strictly observing the principles of proletarian internationalism, of mutual assistance and support, equality, sovereignty and non– intervention in internal affairs. It noted: “Socialism is not afflicted with the contradictions inherent in capitalism. When divergences between socialist countries do arise owing to differences in the level of economic development, in social structure or international position or because of national distinctions, they can and must be successfully settled on the basis of proletarian internationalism, through comradely discussion and voluntary fraternal co-operation.”  [281•* 

p Efforts to promote unity between the socialist countries and the world communist movement occupy an exceptionally important place in the activity of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The 23rd and 24th congresses and the participation in their work by representative delegations from Communist and Workers’ Parties of the socialist countries have testified to the widespread support from the fraternal countries for the policy of the CPSU and the Soviet Government. The solidarity with the Soviet Union by 282 representatives of North Vietnam, that waged an armed struggle against the American aggressors, has had a particular significance. The 24th CPSU Congress reaffirmed the consistent and invariable course of Soviet foreign policy in strengthening the unity and cohesion of the socialist countries, their friendship and brotherhood, inspired by the great ideas of Lenin, and instructed the CPSU Central Committee to do all in its power to expand co-operation with other socialist countries in international politics, economic relations, including the development of economic integration, and to consolidate scientific and cultural contacts.

p Events of recent years, in particular, the victory of the Vietnamese people over the US aggression, have forcefully shown the mounting importance of united actions by socialist countries in the struggle against the aggressive designs of the imperialists.

p The struggle and victory of the people of Vietnam, to whom the Soviet Union gave all-round assistance in repelling the imperialist aggression, convincingly illustrate the vital significance of proletarian internationalism.

p It was largely thanks to the solidarity of the fraternal socialist countries that the diplomatic blockade of the German Democratic Republic was lifted. Another striking example of co-operation in foreign policy is the drafting by socialist countries of a common platform on security and co-operation in Europe and their successful joint efforts in carrying out the platform.

p Continued and closer solidarity is a key factor in consolidating and developing the international successes scored by fraternal socialist countries and in promoting their advance to socialism and communism.

The unswerving implementation of the principles of socialist internationalism and loyalty to Marxism-Leninism are guarantees of successful development, improvement and expansion of international relations of the socialist type.