Czechoslovakia’s Pan-European Relations During the “Long 1970s”

This chapter shows Czechoslovakia’s peculiar pattern to relations with the West in the “long 1970s”. After the Warsaw Pact’s suppression of the Prague Spring, the new elite groups involved in policymaking agreed to return to the safe waters of re-centralised economic planning, autarky and active balance of payments. Unlike other socialist countries, they did not take Western loans to finance modernisation projects or buy consumer goods. The consolidation programme, which became the economic companion of political normalisation, stabilised the economy, brought fast economic growth in 1970-75, and cause no indebtedness. In the second half of the 1970s Czechoslovakia faced export difficulties due to the economic crisis in the Western European countries and to the EEC’s expanding competences and membership. It tried to catch up by signing cooperation agreements with the West, taking some loans, and buying industrial licenses but was late in developing contacts and sectoral agreements with the EEC. In the end, although the regime preserved the country from a serious debt crisis, it was unable to adequately reform the economy and eventually preserve its legitimacy.