The End of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

Authors

  • Jun Fujisawa Kobe University, Chelyabinsk State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/1701/spbu02.2022.213

Abstract

This paper analyzes the negotiations within the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance during the final years of its existence, focusing on the Soviet reform proposals and M. S. Gorbachev’s vision of the “Common European Home” as well as on Eastern European reaction to them. In the second half of the 1980s, Gorbachev tried to found a “unified market” for the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance by introducing a market-oriented reform of the organization. However, this attempt did not materialize because of the East German and Romanian objections. After the collapse of Eastern European socialist regimes in 1989, the Soviet leadership urged the member-states to accelerate the reform of this international organization, hoping to achieve the pan-European economic integration through close cooperation between the totally reformed Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the European Community. Although the Central European countries, namely Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, aspired to join the EC individually, they agreed to participate in a successor organization of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance because the EC was not ready to accept them. Accordingly, by the beginning of 1991, all the member-states agreed to establish a consultative organization, which would be named the Organization for International Economic Cooperation). However, as the Soviet Union failed to sustain trade with the Central European countries, the three countries lost interest in the project. As a result, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was disbanded without any successor organization. In other words, it did not collapse automatically after 1989 but came to an end as a result of various factors, such as rapidly declining trade between the member-states, Western disinterest in the cooperation with it, and the Central European policy changes.

Keywords:

Soviet Union, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, European Community

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
 

Author Biography

Jun Fujisawa, Kobe University, Chelyabinsk State University

PhD, Associate Professor; Researcher

References

References

Ahrens R. Gegenseitige Wirtschaftshilfe? Die DDR im RGW. Strukturen und handelspolitische Strategien 1963–1976. Köln, Böhlau publ., 2000, 388 p.

Barabanov M. V. Priblizhaia “postsotsialisticheskuiu” transformatsiiu v stranakh Vostochnoi Evropy: O nekotorykh “istoricheskikh predposylkakh”. Lokus. Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo gumanitarnogo universiteta im. M. A. Sholokhova. Seriia “Istoriia i politologiia”, 2015, vol. 4, pp. 41–49. (In Russian)

Berend I. From the Soviet Bloc to the European Union: The Economic and Social Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe since 1973. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009, 299 p.

Bergmane U. “Is This the End of Perestroika?” International Reactions to the Soviet Use of Force in the Baltic Republics in January 1991. Journal of Cold War Studies, 2020, vol. 22, issue 2, pp. 26–57.

Borhi L. Dealing with Dictators: The United States, Hungary, and East Central Europe, 1942–1989. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2016, 548 p.

Braband J., van. Remaking Eastern Europe: On the Political Economy of Transition. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publ., 1990, 223 p.

Danielova T. A. Voenno-politicheskie aspekty strategii SShA v otnoshenii stran Vyshegradskoi gruppy (1991–2008 gg.). Vestnik RGGU. Seriia “Politologiia. Istoriia. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia”, 2019, vol. 1, pp. 75–87. (In Russian)

Dashichev V. I. Neudavshiesia popytki reformirovaniia Soveta ekonomicheskoi vzaimopomoshchi (k 60-letiu sozdaniia SEV). Sotsial’no-gumanitarnye znaniia, 2009, vol. 5, pp. 181–198. (In Russian)

De Groot M. The Soviet Union, CMEA, and the Energy Crisis of the 1970s. Journal of Cold War Studies, 2020, vol. 22, issue 4, pp. 4–30.

Domber G. F. Empowering Revolution: America, Poland, and the End of the Cold War. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2014, 392 p.

Dragomir E. Romania and the Intra-Bloc CMEA Negotiations on the Establishment of CMEA-EEC Relations, 1984–1988. Historical Yearbook, 2018, vol. 15, pp. 123–137.

Dudek A. Ewolucja stanowiska rządu Tadeusza Mazowieckiego w sprawie obecności Polski w Układzie Warszawskim oraz stacjonowania na jej terytorium wojsk sowieckich. Dzieje Najnowsze, 2014, vol. 47, issue 4, pp. 161–175.

Dunay P. Subregional Co-operation in East-Central Europe: The Visegrad Group and the Central European Free Trade Agreement. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 2003, vol. 32, issue 1, pp. 45–56.

Germuska P. Unified Military Industries of the Soviet Bloc: Hungary and the Division of Labor in Military Production. Lanham, Lexington Books Publ., 2015, 305 p.

Hutchings R. L. American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War: An Insider’s Account of U. S. Policy in Europe, 1989–1992. Washington, The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1997, 456 pp.

Kansikas S. Socialist Countries Face the European Community: Soviet-Bloc Controversies over East-West Trade. Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang Publ., 2014, 224 p.

Kotkin S. The Kiss of Debt: The East Bloc Goes Borrowing. The Shock of the Global: The 1970s in Perspective. Eds N. Ferguson, Ch. S. Maier, E. Manela, D. J. Sargent. Cambridge, Belknap Press, 2010, pp. 80–93.

Kramer M. The Demise of the Soviet Bloc. Journal of Modern History, 2011, vol. 83, issue 4, pp. 788–854.

Lévesque J. The Enigma of 1989. The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997, 267 p.

Lipkin M. A. Sovetskii Soiuz i integratsionnye protsessy v Evrope: Seredina 1940-kh – konets 1960-kh godov. Moscow, Universitet Dmitriia Pozharskogo Press, 2016, 560 p. (In Russian)

Marie-Pierre R. ‘Europe is our Common Home’: A Study of Gorbachev’s Diplomatic Concept. Cold War History, 2004, vol. 4, issue 2, pp. 33–65.

Metcalf L. Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces in the CMEA: Prospects for the Future. Studies in Comparative Communism, 1992, vol. 25, issue 2, pp. 123–138.

Orlik I. I. Tsentral’no-vostochnaia Evropa: Ot SEV do Evrosoiuza. Novaia i noveishaia istoriia, 2009, vol. 2. pp. 3–20. (In Russian)

Pichugin B. M. Economic Crisis: Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Security Dialogue, 1992, vol. 23, issue 4, pp. 97–108.

Plato A. von. The End of the Cold War? Bush, Kohl, Gorbachev, and the Reunification of Germany. New York, Routledge Publ., 2015, 439 p.

Polynov M. F. “Doktrina Gorbacheva” i ukhod SSSR iz Vostochnoi Evropy. Noveishaia istoriia Rossii, 2011, vol. 2, pp. 107–121. (In Russian)

Sarotte M. E. 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2009, 321 p.

Savranskaya S. The Logic of 1989: The Soviet Peaceful Withdrawal from Eastern Europe. Masterpieces of History: The Peaceful End of the Cold War in Europe. Eds S. Savranskaia, Th. Blanton, V. Zubok. Budapest, Central European University Press, 2010, pp. 1–47.

Sitarian S. A. O prichinakh raspada SEV. K 60-letiiu Soveta ekonomicheskoi vzaimopomoshchi. Edinaia Evropa: proshloe i nastoyashchee ekonomicheskoi integratsii. Moscow, Institut ekonomiki RAN Press, 2009, pp. 72–74. (In Russian)

Smith K. The Making of EU Foreign Policy. The Case of Eastern Europe. Basingstoke, Palgrave Publ., 2004, 293 p.

Spohr K. Post Wall, Post Square: Rebuilding the World after 1989. London, William Collins Publ., 2019, 768 p.

Steiner A. The Council of Mutual Economic Assistance: An Example of Failed Economic Integration? Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 2013, vol. 39, pp. 240–258.

Stone R. Satellites and Commissars: Strategy and Conflict in the Politics of Soviet-Block Trade. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1995, 283 p.

Downloads

Published

2022-11-15

How to Cite

Fujisawa, J. (2022). The End of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History, 67(2), 532–549. https://doi.org/10.21638/1701/spbu02.2022.213

Issue

Vol. 67 No. 2 (2022)

Section

World History

License

Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. History" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.