p Socialism emerged from the framework of a single country and turned into a world socialist system. This occurred with the beginning of socialist construction in Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Rumania, Hungary and Albania, and subsequently the formation of the German Democratic Republic. Alongside the Mongolian People’s Republic, which had existed from 1924, new socialist states arose in Asia—the Chinese People’s Republic, the Korean People’s Democratic Republic and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. A victorious revolution was carried out in Cuba.

p The question of relations between the Soviet Union and the new People’s Democracies (and among the latter themselves) became a direct practical question which also had 267 great importance both for the domestic development of these countries and international relations as a whole.

p The same type of socio-economic and political system, the community of basic interests and tasks, the leading role of Communist and Workers’ Parties, the single dominating ideology—Marxism-Leninism—and the single goal—the triumph of communism, the generally recognised and wellearned prestige of the CPSU and Soviet Union all created an objective basis conducive to implementing the lofty principles of proletarian internationalism in relations between the socialist countries, and to the establishment and development of international relations of a fundamentally new type. At the same time, this involves a complicated historical process which is accompanied by many difficulties.

p On the one hand, there are the insufficiency of historical experience, its specific nature, and the complexity of correctly combining internationalist and national interests, of combining international class solidarity and national, patriotic feelings sharpened by the previous history of the People’s Democracies. Many of them were economically backward, with relatively weak industry and a domination of pettybourgeois elements, feudal survivals and dependence on foreign capital. Their political affairs were characterised by a lengthy absence of state independence and, in several countries, by dictatorial and monarchical forms of government, domination by bourgeois-landowner and petty- bourgeois parties, and the widespread propagation of nationalistic ideology.

p On the other hand, the establishment and development of relations between these countries were considerably affected by the overall international situation, including such features as the cold war, the striving of the imperialist bourgeoisie led by US ruling circles to hinder at any price the consolidation of socialism in Central and Southeastern Europe, and to re-establish the capitalist order and pro- imperialist political regimes there.

p Several circumstances, connected above all with the internal situation in the People’s Democracies, required very careful observation of the voluntary principle in the process 268 of the internationalist cohesion of working people and a strict fulfilment of Leninist instructions that we must “strive persistently for the unity of nations and ruthlessly suppress everything that tends to divide them, and in doing so we must be very cautious and patient, and make concessions to the survivals of national distrust. We must be adamant and uncompromising towards everything that affects the fundamental interests of labour in its fight for emancipation from the yoke of capital.”  [268•* 

p During the immediate postwar years, when imperialism launched the cold war, it was these “fundamental interests” of socialism that necessitated the unity of the socialist countries in the shortest possible time and the securing to the Soviet Union of the vanguard role as the main force confronting world imperialism.

p The Soviet Union, its existence, its strength and its foreign policy did much to help the formation and strengthening of the world socialist system and guarantee its defence against encroachments by imperialist aggressors. Janos Kadar, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, said at the 1969 International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties: “There is no socialist country . .. whose stable prospects of socialist development and security are not protected by the existence, internationalist policy and might of the Soviet Union.”  [268•** 

p In spite of the exceptionally complex situation, as a result of the efforts of the Soviet Union and the People’s Democracies themselves, the basic tasks of normalising relations within the world socialist system and of uniting the countries that took the socialist road after the Second World War have been resolved. A firm alliance of socialist states was formed.

p The socialist states, by rallying around the Soviet Union, gained the opportunity to rely on its military and economic assistance, and to rely on its moral, political and diplomatic support. This has contributed to the failure of aggressive 269 assaults of world imperialism and, at the same time, it has created conditions conducive to the internal consolidation of popular democratic governments, successful solution of urgent social and economic tasks and the advance to a new stage in building socialism.

p The existence, experience and assistance of the Soviet Union greatly helped the People’s Democracies to carry through socialist changes and to improve their domestic and international situation. The words addressed by Lenin to the Communists of the Caucasus in 1921 may be applied to the Communist and Workers’ Parties of these states: “You... have no need to force a breach. You must take advantage of the favourable international situation and learn to build the new with greater caution and more method.”  [269•* 

p The new relations that arose between socialist countries found their expression in bilateral treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance and, subsequently, in multilateral agreements and organisations. As the mutual relations of the socialist countries developed, questions of economic co-operation became increasingly important and, in particular, were manifest in the creation of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) by the European socialist states in 1949. The Mongolian People’s Republic joined later. CMEA greatly helped to expand the economic ties between the socialist countries, especially in foreign trade and scientific and technological co-operation. The need to extend economic co-operation within the socialist community naturally stems from the nature of contemporary socialist production and scientific and technological progress, which demand a concentration of the efforts and resources of the socialist countries so as to resolve the paramount economic tasks.

p However in an atmosphere of international tension stepped up by the imperialist powers headed by the United States, which had been pursuing a course directed towards the remilitarisation of West Germany and encouragement of that country’s revanchist tendencies, the military and political 270 co-operation of the socialist countries became increasingly important. It was further developed within the framework of the Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance signed by eight socialist countries in Europe in 19.55 and also in their many joint international actions.

p The principles of proletarian, socialist internationalism have been furthered in the political, economic and cultural co-operation of the socialist countries. The CPSU Programme defines the characteristic features of relations between socialist countries as complete equality, mutual respect for independence and sovereignty, fraternal assistance and cooperation.

p Difficulties, too, have existed alongside the considerable attainments in relations between socialist states. These difficulties were attributable above all to objective causes, like those mentioned above (the peculiar nature of historical development and divergencies in the social and economic structure of each country, the vestiges of age-old national strife, the novelty and complexity of the tasks of building socialism, and the specific international situation), and also by certain causes of a subjective nature. Lenin’s idea on the need to take into consideration the national features of each country has sometimes not been observed with sufficient consistency; at times, it has been forgotten that Soviet experience reflected both the basic, necessary and general laws of socialist revolution, and the peculiarly national features engendered by the specific nature of the Soviet Union’s development. Meanwhile, one of the features of the October Revolution and Soviet socialist construction has been the ability to take account of the uniqueness and specific nature of each actual situation.

p Errors in this field, an insufficiently creative attitude to historical experience, attempts slavishly and irrespective of specific conditions to copy established models, sometimes artificial speeding up of the solution of social, economic and political problems have had objectively the opposite effect. All this has been played on by hostile, anti-socialist forces to discredit the experience of the CPSU and the Soviet state, to undermine Soviet moral and political prestige in the eyes 271 of the working people, and to weaken the international positions of socialism.

p Between 1953 and 1955, further important steps were taken to develop relations between the Parties and states of the world socialist system. A Plenary Meeting of the CPSU Central Committee adopted a resolution in July 1955 which said: “In all our relations with the People’s Democracies and with the fraternal Communist and Workers’ Parties, Soviet and Party agencies and all our officials abroad must strictly be guided by Leninist principles of socialist internationalism, of complete equality, of respect for national sovereignty and of consideration for the specific national features of all socialist countries.”  [271•* 

p The 20th Congress of the CPSU emphasised the need for a consistent implementation of the Leninist principles of friendship and equality of the peoples in mutual relations between socialist countries. These points were specifically embodied in the Declaration of the Soviet Government "On the Fundamentals of the Development and Further Consolidation of Friendship and Co-operation Between the Soviet Union and Other Socialist States”, published on October 31, 1956.

The overcoming of the negative consequences of the personality cult helped further to consolidate the socialist community. The series of bilateral negotiations and agreements in 1956 and 1957 culminated in the Moscow Meeting of Representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties from 12 socialist countries in November 1957, which unanimously adopted a Declaration. The Declaration stressed: “Stronger fraternal relations and friendship between the socialist countries call for a Marxist-Leninist internationalist policy on the part of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, for educating all the working people in the spirit of combining internationalism with patriotism and for a determined effort to overcome the survivals of bourgeois nationalism and chauvinism.”  [271•**  The Declaration marked an important stage in the 272 development of international relations of a new type, founded on creative application of the Leninist principles of proletarian, socialist internationalism.