Eastern bloc economies in the Cold War

This report presents a range of statistics relating to the economies of Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War, between 1950 and 1991. Following the Second World War, Europe became politically divided between liberal democracy in the west and communism in the east. The communist countries had centralized, state-run economic structures, which followed the socialist model of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was also the most influential power in the region, and most states were economically bound to it through the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. In the decades that followed the war, the east rapidly changed through mass industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, and even out-performed the west in some areas. This began to change in the mid-1970s, before a series of economic crises in the following 15 years saw the eventual collapse of communism in Europe. This report takes a broad look at the Eastern Bloc economies, in aspects such as economic development, international trade, agriculture, and includes some comparisons with the west.