Word: comecon
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...this movement is a growing awareness among the satellites that conventional Communism-particularly when applied to an overall scheme designed chiefly to benefit the mother country-simply does not work as an economic system. The breakup began with Rumania's refusal to accept Russian directions at the 1961 COMECON meeting...
...successors have been far more realistic. A recent Kremlin report suggests that instead of being on the verge of world championship, the Soviet Union's populace barely managed to surpass Bulgaria in 1963 in per-capita purchasing power. In fact, by Moscow's own admission, four Comecon countries -East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland-enjoyed higher standards of living than Russia itself three years...
Still, Rumania's basically nationalist example has had a rattling effect throughout the East. COMECON has come under increasing attack from many of its members, who realize that Russia has been buying them cheap for 17 years. Since Russia supplies roughly 70% of the group's raw materials, and distances are frequently enormous (it is 2,000 miles from the Ural bauxite mines to Prague), Soviet prices are often higher than the world average...
Czechs and Poles complain in the COMECON council that they cannot get what they want in the Red Common Market, or that the goods they do get are shoddy, including East German trucks and salt-laden Soviet oil that burns out pipelines...
Some members have insisted on pre-inspection of their purchases-a shocking innovation in fraternal Communist economics. COMECON clearly needs reform, and Rumania's next target on the list of Communist sacred cows may well be the Warsaw Pact. Already, Rumania has unilaterally reduced obligatory service in its army from 24 to 16 months, and Rumanologist George Gross says it is "quite likely that the Rumanians (like the French in NATO) have balked at infringement of their sovereignty...