Détente as a Factor of Modernization of the USSR in the 1970s - the Beginining of the 1980s in the Analytical Reviews of the Central Intelligence Agency

Abstract

Coverage of the role and importance of the economic policy implemented during the détente period to solve the complex problems of the Soviet Union in the field of intensification of production is relevant in connection with the cyclical completion of the warmer climate between Russia and the West. The study of the historical experience of the development of international cooperation, the analysis of competition for a place in the global division of labor and the results of the struggle for the achievements of the scientific and technical revolution of the XX century make it possible to reconstruct the steps taken by the Soviet leadership to find new foreign economic tools against the background of modernization challenges. The article based on the materials of the electronic archive of the CIA, documents of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, Russian State Archive of Economics and Russian State Archive of Contemporary History funds provide previously unpublished comprehensive information on the size and content of compensation agreements of the USSR with Western Europe, the USA and Japan during the détente period. The authors reveal the role of the banking capital of the USSR to ensure the country's access to hard currency and implementation of the technology transfer policy. Similarity of the strategy of containment of the USSR in the 1970s and Russia today is emphasized on the example of the analysis of the USA intelligence data. The authors come to the conclusion that, despite the considerable mobilization efforts of the Soviet leadership to expand foreign trade operations, the conclusion of large-scale compensation agreements, the creation of sovereign transnational transportation and the development of Soviet financial institutions abroad, the targets set by the modernization of the 1970s were not fully met. The USSR did not maintain the export model in the global economy during the détente period for a number of reasons.