The Problem of Harmonizing the Economic Interests of the USSR and the Socialist Countries. The Сase of Soviet-Polish Trade and Financial Relations (1958–1964)

Soviet trade with Eastern European countries was one of the main forms of economic interaction within the socialist camp. The problem of imbalances in this trade traditionally has been associated with the politicization of intra-bloc relations. However, when harmonizing the interests of the USSR and the socialist interests vis-à-vis long-term trade agreements, economic motives were of great importance. This article discusses the process of harmonizing economic interests, using the case of Soviet-Polish trade relations in 1958–1964. This research based on archival documents from the Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU for Economic Cooperation with the Socialist Countries (in RGANI) and declassified documents from the special fund for the State Planning Commission of RGAE. The analysis shows that contradictions in trade issues provoked a discussion of a wider range of issues: military supplies, credit debt, and transit tariffs for the two countries. Moreover, each of the parties was guided by its own economic interests and rarely made concessions for political reasons. The Soviet government in 1958-1964 made a number of supply concessions, agreed to revise transit tariffs, and incurred part of the costs of maintaining the stability of intra-block trade in the distribution system. There was a change in the structure of Soviet-Polish trade, which significantly reduced the passive trade balance for Polish People’s Republic (RPL). Nevertheless, in accordance with Soviet calculations, after all these changes, trade with RPL and other socialist countries was profitable for the USSR.This research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), project no. 19-78-10023 “Friendship of Convenience: the Impetus and Justification of the Integration of the CMEA’s European member-countries”