Comecon - GCSE History Definition

Comecon (short for the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) was set up in 1949 by the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries like Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. It was made to help these countries work together economically. The idea was to get the countries in the Eastern Bloc to trade with each other, share resources, and help each other’s industries grow — all under the control of the Soviet Union. It was the Soviet answer to Western economic groups like the Marshall Plan. Comecon is important to GCSE History because it shows how the Cold War was not just about weapons. It was also about economic control and influence. It started to break down as the Soviet Union lost power, and it officially ended in 1991 when the Cold War came to a close.