ABSTRACT
The domestic and foreign policies of the Communist states of Eastern Europe show variations determined ostensibly by the prevailing "objective conditions" in each country. The scope of bilateral relations between the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe has not narrowed, and, in the most crucial area of energy supplies, the dependency of the East Europeans has become more severe. Even successful socialist economies as those of Yugoslavia and Hungary are retrenching. The high prices of energy have affected them adversely and, in the case of Yugoslavia, the economic instability of Western Europe has lessened both the need for Gastarbeiters and the workers' ability to bring Western currencies back to the mother country. Eastern Europe's economic dependency on the industrialized West and, to a lesser degree, on relations with the Third World is ultimately less significant than dependency on the Soviet Union.
