The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance: The Thorny Path from Political to Economic Integration

The main theme of this book is how difficult it is for the planned economies to develop multilateral trade relations and accomplish economic integration, given their autarkically oriented trade mechanisms. This chronic conflict is examined over the most decisive phases of development of the Eastern community, from Khrushchev's efforts to create an economic community of sovereign states, to Brezhnev's integration program, to Gorbachev's current efforts to drive forward integration of the Eastern community at whatever cost.