It was in 1967-68 that I wrote the book Economic relations between "the two Europes" and the socialist international cooperation, published in 1970. Its main message may be summed up as follows: 1. Between economic development and underdevelopment exists a state which stabilizes under capitalist economic-and world economic-relations and con­ stitutes a particular peripheral zone around the developed cores of the world economy. It is a historic feat of the European socialist countries to have broken out of this peripheral situation and to move towards the complete liquidation of their historical backwardness. 2. The position of the group of European socialist countries in world economy, and within it, in Europe, is determined by the asymmetry which is at the same time the most characteristic feature of their domestic development: namely, that the "traditional" extent and manner of their participation in the international division of labour no longer corresponds to their development requirements, their having become much more developed and exacting. At the same time, their full participation in the division of labour of the highly developed countries is still hindered-beyond the deliberate and spontaneous repressive efforts of the West-by the fact that their forces of production have not yet reached an advanced state. This is what makes East-West economic relationships even more con­ tradictory and constitutes a menace to every effort made in this direction. 3.