Evening Out (Rapprochement) of Economic Development Levels of the Socialist Countries, the way, typical of socialism, of combining the internationalisation of economic life with greater cooperation in the sphere of politics and ideology, and with the evening out of the levels of social and economic development of individual countries. The principal condition for this is maximum utilisation of advantages provided by the new social system and the world socialist economic system. This is manifested, on the one hand, in the overall mobilisation of internal reserves, and, on the other, in greater cooperation and mutual assistance, and international specialisation and cooperation of production. This regularity becomes especially evident at the current stage of the world socialist economic system, when the USSR has built a developed socialist society, several other countries are engaged in this process, and when mature forms of cooperation between them are evolving. The drawing together of the socialist countries makes the division of labour between them (see Division of Labour, Socialist International) an organic part of the rational internal economic activities of each. The economic objectives of individual socialist countries become more closely intertwined with the goals of economic development of the socialist community as a whole. More and more common elements appear in these countries’ political, economic and social life, and their development levels are gradually equalised. Life itself sets the task of increasing plan coordination with concerting the entire economic policy. The drawing together of the structures of economic mechanisms, the further development of immediate links between ministries, associations and enterprises involved in coordination, and the setting up of joint firms become the order of the day. The growing closeness of the socialist countries in the economic sphere finds its concentrated expression in economic integration (see Integration, Economic Socialist) among the CMEA member countries, which is an effective way, typical of developed socialism, of dealing with the basic economic problems the socialist community countries encounter in their development, by joining their efforts internationally. The materials 128 of the CPSU congresses, as well as the congresses of the communist and workers’ parties of the other CMEA members, emphasise that the tasks facing the community in social and economic evolution can be dealt with only by further enlarging the all-sided cooperation between the socialist states, and closely linking this with the social and economic development tasks tackled by the individual countries, and by making substantial modifications in the structure and technological level of material production according to the concerted plan. The evening out of the economic development levels of the socialist countries is expressed in the increasing similarity of indices such as per capita national income and industrial output, labour productivity, real incomes, etc. Economic rapprochement between the socialist countries is proceeding in two interlinked aspects: first, the evening out of their economic development levels, and second, the establishment and consolidation of socialist economic cooperation between the countries. The more even economic development levels do not, however, mean that all distinctions have been eradicated, in particular, this does not concern those stemming from the countries’ natural conditions, specific national features and historically formed structures of mass requirements, etc.