Authors

Michael Bernhard¹;  ¹ University of Florida, United States

Discussion

This project explores the economic relationship between the Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern and Central Europe (ECE). The essence of the imperial relationship between the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact was not one of economic exploitation but political subordination. In the context of the ideological struggle of the Cold War the adoption of Soviet-type institutions was the sine qua non for the satellites, and economically this meant the replacement of the market with bureaucratic administration of the economy. This meant that Soviet imperialism fostered a relationship of resource dependence between ECE and the USSR, because the Soviet Union literally had to provide the raw materials necessary for ECE to replicate the Soviet model of industry locally. From the perspective of a supply constrained economy this means that providing for the resource needs of your imperial dependencies is something that constrains your ability to grow domestically. The paper explores how this relationship became a burden on the USSR by looking at the increasing share of Soviet energy resources that the bloc countries required.