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The period of peaceful coexistence and détente, usually considered under ils strictly political aspects, is treated hère from an économie point of view based on Soviet statistical sources, this book explores the USSR's political motives since the beginning of the 1950s for acquiring western equipment. The décision to open up economically to the West rested on military, diplomatie, économie, fïnancial and technological considérations ; but the Soviet Union's intention was also to play for time in its race for modernization. The call for western capital began earlier than is generally thought : Soviet investment has, for a long time, been heavily dépendent on western goods. This old économie dependence is not irreconcilable, as the USSR is trying to prove in récent developments, with a super power's affirmation of its autonomous decisional process.