This report was produced for the Foreign Office by someone
living in Czechoslovakia in 1956.
The report is based on a booklet published by the Communist
Party in Czechoslovakia. The booklet sets out the aims of Communist government
in Czechoslovakia. The report sums up what was said in the booklet.
The 'People's Democracies' means the Eastern European
states ruled by Communism and allied to the USSR.
In Stalin's time (up to 1953), the economies of all these
states were planned and organised by COMECON in Moscow. This organisation
decided how much each country should produce of goods like food, coal, steel
etc. Many critics of COMECON said that all the industries of Eastern Europe
were simply producing for the benefit of the USSR.
At the time of the report (and booklet) Khrushchev
had just emerged as the new Soviet leader. He favoured economic reform and
improved relations with the West, Yugoslavia and China.