ABSTRACT
The Soviet Union has no doubt a hegemonial position in the Eastern bloc. For the early phase of the post-war relationship in the Eastern bloc, Western Marxists have listed instruments of economic exploitation such as reparations, joint ventures in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, or the purely Soviet corporations in the GDR, discrimination in the price system and the role of the Soviet Union as an intermediate trader of international goods, enabling it to earn extra profits. The first problem is that the Soviet economy probably needs an instrument such as Comecon to support its foreign economic relations even less than the Soviet Union needs the Warsaw Pact for its military dominance in Eastern Europe. It has been clear from the genesis of the socialist system that the bilateral pacts of friendship and assistance are a good equivalent and make verbal moves towards dissolution of the bloc organizations rather more significant than mere propaganda manoeuvres.
