ABSTRACT
Plant and equipment make up the bulk of Soviet imports from the West; by comparison, the transfer of other types of technology has remained a quantitenegtigeable in the foreign trade of the USSR. Within the Western Alliance it has never been disputed that the transfer of technology to Council of Mutual Economic Assistance countries, and in particular to the Soviet Union, involves political and security risks. Given the significance that is often attributed to Soviet technology imports, one could be led to believe that plants and equipment make up more than a proportional share of the Soviet Union's trade with the West. From the beginning the Soviet economy has been guided by the principle of giving priority to various branches of industry. During the first Five-year-plan Stalin was motivated to further develop the Soviet economic planning system by the need for greater efforts in armaments in the light of external conditions.
