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p Throughout the ages, relations between countries were determined by the policy of the ruling exploiting classes, which sought to turn nations against each other and to use one nation to suppress another. It was only after the first socialist state came 011 the scene that the foundation was laid for basically different foreign relations.

p The prerequisites for these relations matured under the capitalist mode of production. When the previously isolated national economies became linked in a single world capitalist economy, they engendered the material conditions for the future world socialist economy. As the emancipation 256 struggle against capitalist tyranny developed, proletarian international solidarity was born and grew strong, providing the spiritual conditions for the future world socialist economy.

p Lenin had foreseen that more and more countries were bound to fall away from the capitalist system. He based his view on a strictly scientilic analysis of capitalism and imperialism, its highest stage. The various links ol the capitalist chain broke at different periods due to the law of uneven development of capitalism and the uneven maturing of socialist revolution in the various countries.

p Almost three decades after the October Revolution, socialism still developed in only two countries, the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People’s Republic. By the end of the last war, the political power of the imperialists had waned in many parts of Europe and Asia. The working-class and democratic movement began to come to the fore in political affairs. Even during the war, the Resistance, which had contributed so much to defeating the nazis, was interspersing its anti-fascist slogans with demands for social reform. In a number ot European and Asian states, Communist Parties spearheaded the popular movement and were elaborating programmes for post-war reconstruction and struggle for socialism; by the end of the war, organs of popular power were already operating in some liberated countries. The anti-fascist and revolutionary movement became particularly extensive in Central and South-East Europe when the Soviet Army began its liberating mission.

p In November 1943, the National Liberation Committee of Yugoslavia was established and became the supreme executive body in people’s Yugoslavia. In July 1944, a revolutionary democratic government was formed in the liberated part of Poland. A month later, on August 23, a popular uprising in Rumania overthrew the fascist dictatorship. Almost simultaneously, uprisings broke out in Slovakia and Communist-led local bodies of popular power were established. On September 9 of the same year, a popular uprising in Bulgaria was successful. In October 1944, a provisional government was formed in the liberated part of Hungary and declared war on nazi Germany. And in November of the same year, the Provisional Democratic Government of Albania came into being.

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p Upon the defeat of nazi Germany, the U.S.S.R. kept faith with its allies by delivering the crucial blow at Japan. The victory over Japan and liberation by the Soviet lorccs of North-East China helped the Chinese people to gain their freedom and independence and released North Korea from colonial bondage. The upsurge of the national liberation movement in Asia after the defeat of the Japanese militarists led to the establishment of an independent Vietnam in August 1945.

p By the end of the war, powerful democratic forces, opposed to domestic and foreign reaction, had emerged in the former enemy-occupied territories. The defeat of nazi Germany and Japanese militarism, and the decisive Soviet war effort, smoothed the way for the peoples of several European and Asian countries in overthrowing the rule of the capitalists and landowners.

p The comprehensive political and economic assistance rendered by the Soviet Union to the countries liberated from fascism, added to the Soviet people’s experience in building socialism, had immense significance in promoting the revolutionary movement. Moreover, the Soviet Union’s revolutionising influence was not confined to the territories liberated by the Soviet forces. It spread to many other countries. However, naked or secret imperialist intervention prevented the advance of the revolution in some.

p In the early post-war years, the socialist forces in Eastern Europe gained in strength from their battles with domestic and foreign reaction. After February 1948, when the Czechoslovakian bourgeoisie was removed from power, it was quite clear that any attempts to restore capitalism in the People’s Democracies were doomed to failure. In October 1949, the forces of the anti-fascist national front established the German Democratic Republic. There followed the formation of the People’s Republic of China, the Korean People’s Democratic Republic and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In the early 1960s, the Republic of Cuba became the first socialist state on the American continent.

p All the countries that had taken the socialist road initially had to fight hard to repulse imperialist attempts to put down the popular revolutions and restore capitalism. The ruling quarters of the U.S.A. and Britain not only supported counter-revolutionary forces in the countries freed from fascism, 258 but even tried to put pressure on their democratic governments by threatening them with armed intervention.

p In the arduous years of the cold war, launched by the imperialist powers, the Soviet Union made a great effort to safeguard the People’s Democracies from the export of counter-revolution. The Soviet stand was clear: it would support the revolutionary gains of all peoples fighting for socialism and unwaveringly defend these peoples by all the means at its disposal. In its campaign against the encroachments of the imperialists, the Soviet Government took an unequivocal stand in favour of stable peace and international security, while at the same time giving considerable political backing to the People’s Democracies. Further, it rendered them essential economic and military aid, did all that was necessary to boost their defence capacity, including supplies of Soviet arms and help in the training of personnel. At the request of some of these governments, it also sent economic and technical experts to give advice.

p The world socialist community was gaining in stature at a time of fierce international conflicts, when imperialism was trying to stem the tide of sociidist revolution in Europe and Asia. Political solidarity was essential if the new socialist countries were to safeguard their gains, which is why a military-political alliance of the socialist states took shape to protect them against aggression.

p One important consequence of the new socialist community was the successful resolution of territorial and national questions that had for many years bedevilled interstate relations. Political co-operation was enshrined in treaties of friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance. Even in wartime, such treaties were signed between the U.S.S.R. and Czechoslovakia (December 12, 1943), Yugoslavia (April 11, 1945) and Poland (April 21, 1945). The U.S.S.R. signed similar treaties with Rumania (February 4, 1948), Hungary (February 18, 1948) and Bulgaria (March 18, 1948). Between 1947 and 1949, treaties of friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance were concluded by these European People’s Democracies with each other.

p It takes a comparatively long time involving a complex process to establish a new type of international relations, which have come up against a number of problems precisely because they are the first relations of their type in the world 259 and because they suffer from the legacy of the old capitalist order. In the past, aggravating conflicts had alienated what were to become the new socialist states, due to a variety of economic, political or territorial claims on one another. Mistrust and sometimes naked enmity which had beset relations between capitalist states were certainly not to be dispelled overnight. As Lenin had warned, an alliance of diverse nations “cannot be effected at one stroke; we have to work towards it with the greatest patience and circumspection, so as not to spoil matters and not to arouse distrust, and so that the distrust inherited from centuries of landowner and capitalist oppression, centuries of private property and the enmity caused by its divisions and redivisions may have a chance to wear off".  [259•1 

p The Soviet Government statement of October 30, 1956, “On the Principles of the Promotion and Further Strengthening of Friendship and Co-operation Between the Soviet Union and Other Socialist States”, and exchanges of opinion on pressing issues between socialist states, confirmed the principles of complete equality, respect for territorial integrity, state independence and sovereignty, and non- interference in the domestic issues of other states.

p Socialist internationalism is the rock on which international relations within the socialist community stand. The harmonisation of each country’s interests with those of the socialist community as a whole is a natural prerequisite of successful struggle against imperialism and resolution of common international problems.

p Political co-operation between the socialist states is constantly being improved and its forms are becoming more diverse. In the early years of the socialist community, bilateral ties mainly predominated, but these were later supplemented by multilateral agreements. The most important form of military and political collective co-operation is the Warsaw Pact of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance, signed in 1955 by the U.S.S.R., Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Rumania and Czechoslovakia. The majority of socialist countries closely collaborate in resolving the cardinal issues of international relations.

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p Soviet economic and military strength, Soviet foreign policy and the military and political collaboration of all the socialist states have become major factors in restraining imperialist aggression. It was Soviet resistance that staved off the imperialist assault being prepared against the European People’s Democracies in the early post-war years. During periods of intense international conllict, when the imperialists succeeded in mounting aggression against socialism, the Soviet Union dealt firmly with the aggressor and safeguarded the independence of the country under attack. This happened, for example, during the attack on the Korean People’s Democratic Republic. All-round Soviet aid to the Korean people and the firm line of Soviet foreign policy did much to bring the Korean war to an end and the signing oi an armistice in July 1953. This was a great attainment for the peace-loving policy of the Soviet and other socialist governments. The imperialist designs for winning the war in Korea were foiled and they were forced to renounce their immediate plans in that part of the world.

p In 1953, when the West German revanchists, backed by the U.S.A., attempted a counter-revolutionary putsch in Berlin, the U.S.S.R. gave a resolute rebuff to the subversive imperialist action. Three years later, in 1956, international reaction was again at work, this time inspiring a counterrevolutionary uprising in Hungary. Once again, the Soviet Union came to the aid of the Hungarian people, helped the Hungarian Revolutionary Workers’ and Peasants’ Government to put down the counter-revolution and overcome the consequences of the revolt.

p The Soviet Union rendered generous assistance to the Chinese People’s Republic in its fight against U.S. aggressive policy. During the military crisis over Taiwan, which broke out in the summer of 1958, the Soviet Union played a decisive part in preventing aggression against China.

p Just as consistent was the Soviet protection of revolutionary Cuba from U.S. aggression. The Soviet Union helped the Cuban people to overcome the U.S. economic blockade and safeguard their independence.

p In the mid-1960s, Soviet foreign policy was increasingly involved in support for the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in its fight against the U.S. aggression. The Soviet people declared that any escalation of the ignominous war against 261 the Vietnamese people would be faced with increased aid to Vietnam from the Soviet Union and other socialist states.

p The Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Pact, which met in Bucharest at the beginning of July 1966, issued a statement in connection with the U.S. aggression in Vietnam, saying that “by their fight against U.S. imperialism, the Vietnamese people are defending not only their own national rights, but are making a valuable contribution to the fight of the whole socialist community and of all nations for peace, independence, democracy and socialism”. It went on to say that member-states “are rendering and will continue to render the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ever increasing moral and political support and comprehensive assistance, including economic, means of defence and the materials, equipment and specialists necessary for victory against the U.S. aggression, with due account of the needs arising from the new phase of the Vietnam war".  [261•1 

p Socialist co-operation is becoming ever more effective, as was evident in the summer of 1968, when hostile forces exploited the complex domestic political situation in Czechoslovakia and tried to take the country out of the socialist community. In order to provide a powerful shield against the threat to socialism in Czechoslovakia, the governments of Bulgaria, Hungary, the G.D.R., Poland and the U.S.S.R. took the necessary steps, including armed assistance to the Czechoslovak people, so as to safeguard the socialist gains from the encroachments of internal and external enemies. These steps were only taken after a profound and comprehensive study of the situation that had developed; they were based on the principles formulated at the Meeting of Six Communist Parties at Bratislava in early August 1968 and concretised during the Soviet-Czechoslovakian negotiations in Moscow in October of the same year and written into a special agreement. They were also supported within Czechoslovakia. A resolution adopted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia at a Plenary Meeting in November 1968, “The Party’s Main Aims for the Immediate Future”, had this to say: “The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia fully supports the principles expressed in the Moscow agreement of August 26, 262 1968 and in the communique on the talks between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia on October 3 and 4, and also the principles of the Statement by Six Communist Parties issued on August 4, 1968 at Bratislava, and emphasises the responsibility of all Communists, particularly at state level, to implement the principles embodied in these documents.”

p The action by the socialist countries expressed their concern for the socialist gains in Czechoslovakia and for the entire socialist community. This action once again demonstrated the solid unity of the international and the national tasks of socialist states. As the C.P.S.U. Party Programme says, “The experience of the peoples of the world socialist community has confirmed that their fraternal unity and cooperation conform to the supreme national interests of each country. The strengthening of the unity of the world socialist system on the basis of proletarian internationalism is an imperative condition for the further progress of all its member-countries."  [262•1 

p The common foreign policy of the socialist states by no means implies interference in their domestic affairs and does not infringe upon the independence of individual states in pursuing their home and foreign policies. But the independence of a socialist state does not imply any lack of responsibility for the fate of the whole socialist community. The governing party of each socialist state is responsible for its policy not only to its own people, but to the world communist movement as a whole. As Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, Z. Komocin, has said, “If the independence of individual Parties is contrasted to the jointly elaborated and adopted general policy and to the principle of proletarian internationalism, it constitutes a breach with internationalism and a concession to bourgeois nationalism."  [262•2 

p Economic co-operation is another aspect of the new type of inter-socialist relations. Throughout the difficult rehabilitation period, the socialist states of Europe and Asia received considerable economic assistance from the Soviet 263 Union. After the war, the Soviet Union itself had serious economic difficulties. Nevertheless, that did not prevent it from exporting food, fuel, raw materials and equipment to the People’s Democracies and extending credits to them. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Poland, for example, received investment credits for industrialisation totalling 2.2 billion rubles. On the estimates of Polish economists, Soviet credits for 1945-49 were equivalent in value to the plant and equipment received by eleven West European states under the Marshall Plan.

p The establishment of firm trade ties with the Soviet Union was of especial importance for the People’s Democracies because, at that time, the Western powers were pursuing a policy of economic boycott against these countries. The U.S.A. had annulled its trade treaties with Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Poland and Hungary. Britain, France and other capitalist states were cutting their trade with the socialist camp to a minimum. But the U.S.S.R. stepped into the breach and concluded trade agreements with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Albania, enabling them to purchase Soviet equipment for factories, mills and power stations. Long-term trade pacts facilitated their socialist planning and enabled each country to develop the major branches of its economy.

p Bourgeois propaganda has spread the lie that Soviet trade relations with other socialist countries are unequal and that they tie in their economies with Soviet economic plans. The swift economic progress of the socialist states, however, is eloquent response to such allegations. Janos Kadar, First Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, blasted these allegations in a speech at the 15th session of the United Nations General Assembly when he said: “How do they dare slander Soviet-Hungarian relations when the swift progress of my nation in the last fifteen years has been largely attributable to the all-round, selfless, genuinely socialist economic and cultural aid from the Soviet Union?"  [263•1 

p As the economies of the socialist states have grown, it has become possible to use more sophisticated forms of economic co-operation, to give them a wider multilateral 264 base. The establishment’in 1949 of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (C.M.E.A.) laid the basis for such collaboration.

p C.M.E.A. is the first international economic organisation of socialist states and radically differs from the closed economic groupings of capitalist states. Its members neither surround themselves with tariff barriers, nor discriminate in trade with third parties. C.M.E.A. aims to extend economic contacts with all countries.

p In its early years, C.M.E.A. was largely concerned with increasing bilateral trade on a short-term or long-term basis. Subsequently, since the mid-1950s, by which time the socialist economy was strong and the level of planning efficient, its purpose changed and it has since been concerned with coordinating planning within the community.

p In the first half of the 1960s, the socialist states worked out a programme for extending and intensifying economic relations within the socialist community, with the result that “The Fundamental Principles of International Socialist Division of Labour" were ratified in June 1962, at the Moscow Meeting, attended by First Secretaries of Central Committees of Communist and Workers’ Parties and Heads of Government of C.M.E.A. countries. Drawn up at C.M.E.A.’s 15th Session, this document summed up experience in economic co-operation and charted the course for further division of labour within the socialist community.

p No mean difficulties have cropped up in creating the complicated mechanism and selecting correct methods of economic co-operation. The way to lasting co-operation has turned out to be more difficult than expected. This is understandable, considering the complexity of co-ordinating economic interests of countries at different levels of economic development, with different structures, unequal raw material resources, etc.

p Member-states initially underestimated the importance of economic accounting for international socialist specialisation and combination of production; some aspects of production combination were not always sufficiently reinforced by economic incentives; many advantages and opportunities were missed in capitalising on scientific and technical cooperation.

p But these natural problems of growth are being overcome. 265 Co-operation between the socialist countries, both within and outside the C.M.E.A. framework, is being constantly improved. This is assured by regular governmental consultation. A meeting of the leaders of Communist and Workers’ Parties and Heads of Government of the C.M.E.A. countries in Bucharest on July 7, 1966, declared that C.M.E.A. had done considerable work in co-ordinating nationaleconomic plans, specialisation and combination of production, and extension of economic contacts between the socialist countries. The meeting was unanimous in its intention to continue to extend mutual co-operation in accordance with the principles of complete equality, respect for sovereignty and national interests, mutual benefit and comradely mutual assistance, thereby further strengthening proletarian internationalism, and the unity and solidarity of the socialist states. These same aims were reflected in the declaration issued by the Bratislava Conference in August 1968.

p In the latter part of the 1960s, the international socialist division of labour was advancing to more intensive forms of co-operation which facilitated more efficient production and greater public welfare.

Experience in political and economic collaboration has confirmed the growing role of the world socialist community in international affairs. The concerted political actions of the socialist states have been exerting an ever increasing influence on international relations, foiling the aggressive designs of imperialism and enhancing the cause of peace.