FromusetoEEC: The soviet analysis of European integration under capitalism

Abstract

'THE economic potential of the capitalist world will to a large extent depend on how the integration process develops'-one of the foremost Soviet writers on capitalist integration remarked recently.' For this reason the European Economic Community, the most ambitious attempt this century to integrate capitalist economies, is a matter of special concern for Soviet theory and strategy. This article examines the main points of debate and change in the Soviet analysis of the origin, operation, consequences and prospects of the EEC, and considers whether this analysis forms a coherent theory and how far it is faithful to MarxistLeninist orthodoxy. It is hoped that this will serve both as a theoretical background to the study of Soviet policy towards the EEC2 and as a case-study in Soviet ideological development. We start by reviewing the Marxist debate of I914-I6 on the idea of a 'United States of Europe' (USE), the significance of which has not been fully brought out by Western writers,3 for it was Lenin's pronouncements on this question, in the context of his theory of imperialism, which provided the doctrinal guidelines for Soviet analysis of the EEC, just as the views of his opponents formed a series of taboos. Then we consider how far Lenin's ideas have been used or transcended in the Soviet interpretation of the evolving Community, offering a rough periodization based on main changes in doctrine or in themes discussed, while bearing in mind the interrelation of theory, agitation and practical policy.4