ECONOMIC COOPERATION BETWEEN POLAND, USSR, AND PEOPLE'S DEMOCRACIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700230028-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: March 9, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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STAT
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ECONOMIC CCOPERATION BETWEEN POLAND, USSR,
AND PEOPLE'S DEMOCRACIES
Gospodarka Planowa Florian Atkonis
Warsaw, Oct 195
Economic cooperation among the countries of the camp of peace was initiated
by the USSR in 1945 and includes the USSR, the People's Republic of China, Poland,
the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Democratic People's Republic of
Korea, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Albania. It already has its traditions
and noteworthy achievements. The cooperating states, acting in conformity with
the directives of CEMA (Council for Economic Mutual Assistance), have had great
success in building up their national economies with mutual and disinterested
help. The highest organs of authority in all the cooperating countries now
consider this cooperation as one of the most important political and economic
factors in building socialism and raising the standard of living.
The all-round form of this cooperation is a guarantee of the necessary and
proper utilization of each other's achievements. This is particularly important
because of the unequal economic levels of the participants. The diversity of
this cooperation permits the participants to overcome the difficulties of expansion
and the discriminatory policies of capitalistic states.
Economic cooperation extends into every field of the national economy, includ-
ing science, technology, and commerce. The appearance of technical, construction,
and project documentation sets from other countries is an everyday occurrence in
the work of Polish industrial institutes and plants. An everyday occurrence also
is the acquiring of practical experience abroad by Polish experts. Consultations
and expert advice are given by foreign experts for the solution of pressing problems
of production or organization. All these forms of cooperation belong, in principle,
to the scientific and technical part of this economic cooperation. Economic co-
operation, however, embraces a much wider field and is manifested in many forms,
the most important of which are the following: the delivery of complete investment
installations, mutual utilization of temporarily available production capacities,
and production cooperation.
Economic cooperation, conducted along these principles and with the use of so
many diversified forms of cooperation, saves the participating countries great
financial expenditures and loss of time in tedious scientific research, aids in
the full utilization of the country's resources, and permits the concentration
of more forces and funds for the accomplishment of the most pressing tasks. It
makes it possible to accelerate economic development and to gain economic inde-
pendence from capitalist countries. Its disinterest, directness, and inexpensive-
ness make it an effective tool in hastening the building of socialism in the
participating countries.
Poland, as a member of CEMA, has been cooperating economically with the USSR
and the People's Democracies since 1945. This cooperation was, at first, limited
to the delivery of complete industrial plants and technical equipment, and to
scientific cooperation. A description of the delivery of complete industrial
plants by the USSR to Poland is given by P. Szafran in an article entitled, "On
Soviet Economic Aid to Poland," in the July 1954 issue of Gospodarka Planowa.
Discussion of this type of economic cooperation, therefore, will be limited here
to its application to the other People's Democracies.
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The period covering Poland's Three-Year Plan and the first 3 years of
the Six-year Plan was characterized by Poland's
reat ne
d f
g
e
or complete
setsindustrial plants and equipment accompanied by their technical documentation
sets.
The tasks which faced Poland during this period, those of initiating new
production, constant and systematic lowering of real costs, introducing limited
mechanization, improving work organization, and raising quality of production,
reflected the great need for scientific and technical cooperation. Poland
examined several proposals for obtaining the technological and construction
documentation sets, the organizational plans, and the experiences of leading
foreign industries. This form of scientific and technical cooperation,
realized by sending Polish experts abroad and by receiving expert advice of
foreign experts on the spot in Poland, brought good results.
With increasing progress and changes of emphasis in the economy, the
cooperation among the participating countries became closer; that is, it
tied together related industries of the cooperating countries. This permitted
a more effective operational contact and a fuller utilization of the mutual
economic potential.
The following table shows the development of scientific and technical
cooperation from 1951 to 1953 among Poland, the USSR, and the other People's
Democracies;
No of Documenta-
No of Documenta-
No of Polish
ExpertsSent
Abroad for
No of Foreign
Experts
Poland for
Year
tion Sets Received
by Poland
tion Sets Delivered Practical Practical
by Poland E
xperience Experience
1951
1
360
115
200
170
952
1
54o
250
650
300
953
410
300
950
300
Total
1,310
;65
1,800
770
Poland filled her needs for documentation sets and training of her experts
through cooperation primarily with the USSR, the GDR, and Czechoslovakia. The
exchange of experience with Hungary remained at about the same level during
this period. Poland was for the most part the supplier for the other participating
countries. The large number of Polish experts sent to foreign countries can be
explained by the fact that they were studying industries that were not known in
prewar Poland. Many of the experts also had to supplement their knowledge for
the more rapid utilization of the documentation sets already received, and had to
master technological processes for the newly supplied and newly operating plants
in Poland.
The help of the USSR to Poland during this period was especially noticeable
in the mining, electric power, chemical, engineering, and metallurgical industries.
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STAT
Past and present Soviet help given to Poland in the scientific and
technical field is of the highest type, capable of being put to immediate
use in the science and industry of Poland. This applies equally to
problems of production and of organization. The use of Soviet documenta-
tion sets and the advice of Soviet experts in Poland have an economic
effect worth millions of zloty.
Of the more than 300 technical documentation sets given to Poland
by the USSR from 1951 to 1953, 100 have been put to full use. Since a
great many of these documentation sets were for large industrial plants
which demand a long time for full implementation, such as a heat and
electric power plant and a plant for producing vitamin C, the degree of
utilization has been considerable, especially since the remaining 200
include many sets which are still in the process of adaptation. The
same high degree of utilization applies to the production of new ma-
chines and equipment such as metallurgical traveling cranes, new types
of agricultural machines and drilling equipment, and machine tools.
Besides the great contributions of Soviet experts in Poland, a
great contribution to the development of Polish industry has been the
experience gained by Polish experts who worked in the USSR. From 1951
to 1953, about 300 experts gained practical experience by working in
the USSR, not counting those sent to the USSR in connection with
economic agreements for the delivery of complete industrial plants.
As a result of the experience gained by these experts, many new production
processes were put into operation, and existing production techniques were
more proficiently employed.
Poland, on her part, trained many Soviet specialists in various
fields of industry, and shared with the USSR with the achievements of
Polish science. One example is the work of Professor Cebertowicz on
hardening earth for building foundations. Poland's contributions to the
USSR are constantly increasing.
Cooperation with the GDR has been primarily in the chemical and
engineering industries. In the chemical industry especially, GDR coopera-
tion has extended to fundamentally important industrial establishments,
for which Poland received complete equipment and documentation sets, the
chemical combine at Kedzierzyn, for example. New chemical production
plants were put into operation as a result of the expert aid of GDR
engineers and scientists. Cooperation in the engineering industry was
given primarily to the industries producing precision instruments, textile
machines, motor vehicles, lifting equipment, construction machinery, and
railroad rolling stock. This cooperation included not only the delivery
of installations and equipment, but also scientific and technical coopera-
tion. Of importance also is the GDR's help in communications equipment.
The close cooperation of the Polish and Czechoslovak metallurgical
industries proved especially useful to Poland in obtaining very valuable
practical experience in this basic industry. Two coking batteries were
constructed in Poland by Czechoslovak experts, and a great number of
technical documentation sets on the technology of production, rolling, and
forging of steel were received by Poland from Czechoslovakia.
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The similarity of systems in the Polish and Czechoslovak r:etallurgical
industries permitted a close association and a great degree of cooperation,
which resulted in important mutual benefits, such as the exchange of pig
iron for steel production, the utilization of available mutual production
potentials for metal rolling. Many bottlenecks were eliminated in the
plants of both countries.
The Polish power industry still receives high-quality turbogenerator
aggregates and boilers from Czechoslovakia. Active cooperation in this
field also includes bilateral delivery of power and the exchange of pro-
duction and exploitation experiences.
The construction-materials industry, faced with the problem of in-
creasing production, was able to meet most of the country's expan.,d needs
after the delivery by Czechoslovakia of complete equipment for the two
cement works of Odra and Wiek II.
A classic example of Czechoslovak scientific and technical cooperation
in the production of pharmaceuticals is the manufacture of penicillin, and
many other good-quality drugs were put on the Polish market faster, with the
aid of Czechoslovak experience and technical documentation sets.
Over a 3-year period, 1,240 Polish experts went to the GDR and Czecho-
slovakia for practical experience, and now the number is tending to in-
crease.
This scientific and technical cooperation, however, has not been one-
sided. For 2 years, 250 Czechoslovak experts worked in Polish industrial
plants to gain experience, and 130 technical documentation sets were sent
by Poland to Czechoslovakia during 1952 and 1953.
Poland helped to ::.eet GDR and Czechoslovak needs in mining and con-
struction by giving these countries the benefit of its great experience in
these fields, and by supplying Czechoslovakia, in particular, with equip-
ment, documentation sets for various installations, and mining and drilling
machinery.
Polish cooperation with Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria extends to those
industries in which each at the three excels: Hungary, in the railroad-
rolling-stock industry, from which Poland has received railroad motor cars,
and the electrotechnical and textile industries; Rumania, in the oil-extraction
and oil-processing industries; and Bulgaria, in agriculture and the food-
processing industry, foi which Poland is supplying completely equipped cold-
storage plants.
Cooperation with North Korea, which was started in 1954, and with
Albania is now one-sided, and consists mainly in sending Polish experts for
consultations and in training North Korean and Albanian workers in Polish
industrial plants. In addition, Poland is supplying North Korea with much
industrial equipment and is building industrial plants, as for example, plants
in the railroad field.
Up to now, cooperation with China has been limited to the supply of
equipment and complete industrial plants, such as the two sugar refineries
built by Poland in China, but it is entering a new phase. The recently
signed agreement on cooperation and the first protocol of the Scientific
and Technical Cooperation Commission create a base for rapid and all-round
development of economic cooperation between the two countries.
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economy will show the effect of scientific and technical cooperation with
the USSR and the People's Democracies. Polish metallurgy, with Soviet
documentation sets on the production technology of bimetallic strips and
Czechoslovak documentation sets on the production of electrodes, has been
able to eliminate the importation of these items and thus effect great
savings in foreign trade. By using igielit [plastic] for the manufacture
of tubes for cosmetics, as a result of experience and documentation sets
obtained from the GDR, Polish industry has saved about 90 tons of scarce
nonferrous metals over a 6-month period. Soviet documentation sets for
a factory producing vitamin C have freed Poland from having to import this
preparation and has hastened and simplified the work connected with start-
ing such a difficult production process. The use of Hungarian documenta-
tion sets for the granulation of superphosphates has resulted in higher-
quality fertilizers and savings in time and costs of plant construction.
Soviet construction and technological documentation sets used in the Polish
engineering industry resulted in the production of eight new types of
agricultural machines, and in the planned production of seven more new
types in the near future.
Technical documentation sets for several machine tools and electric
motors provided an effective aid to the engineering industry, resulting
in important savings of many tons of scarce copper. Work productivity in
the production of resistors has increased by 300 percent by the use of
GDR documentation sets. About 30 million zloty annually has been saved
in shoe factories by conserving leather through the use of Czechoslovak
technical documentation sets.
The basic and most important results of economic cooperation are ne,i
branches of industry, economic independence from capitalistic countries,
savings in materials and costs, better work organization and improvement
in work conditions. The near future undoubtedly will bring further expansion
of economic cooperation.
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