Sketches of National Economic Geographies: the Developed Countries

Abstract

The countries of Eastern Europe vary considerably not only in population and area but also in natural endowment and in the stage of economic development. None of them has any great wealth, but they have nevertheless considerable economic potential which has yet to be really effectively utilised. From pursuing their own widely divergent national policies, they have been drawn into the application of Marxist—Leninist concepts which have tended to reduce the contrasts between them, though in recent years national interpretations have begun again to distinguish them. Collectively, they are a formidable combination and are to a considerable degree complementary to one another. With the exceptions of Jugoslavia and Albania, these nations have been tied tightly to the Soviet Union through Comecon. The orientation of their trade and political contacts to the Soviet Union has been a reversal of pre-1945 orientations and has occasioned considerable painful readjustment.