“We have One Hundred Percent Mutual Trust”. From the History of the Coordination of the National Economic Plans of the MPR and the USSR for the five-year period 1971–1975

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to the little-studied topic of the history of Soviet-Mongolian planning coordination on the example of coordination of the plans of the MPR and the USSR for the five years of 1971–1975. The purpose of the article is an objective study of this process, which is expressed in identifying its course and mechanisms of commission, as well as determining its role in economic cooperation between countries. Materials and methods. The research was based on archival materials of the USSR State Planning Committee, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Secretariat of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance. Results. The coordination of the plans of the MPR and the USSR for the five-year period 1971–1975 was a multi-stage process. First, during negotiations and two consultations of the authorities of the countries, five-year plans for the development of the national economy of the countries were agreed upon, and then during the five-year plan, annual plans were coordinated. Conclusions. The content of the coordination of the five-year plans consisted, on one hand, in an exchange of views on the draft “Main directions for the development of the national economy of the MPR”, and, on the other, in discussing some procedural issues. In turn, all the main decisions on economic cooperation between the countries in 1971–1975 were taken at the level of party and government delegations, which determines the purely technical role of planned coordination in the system of relations between Mongolia and the Soviet Union during the period under review.