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Soviet-American relations : a new era ? Even as its official spokesmen proclaim the end of the cold war, the USSR fovernment, now five years into the new era of perestroïka and « new political thin- ing », is still operating its foreign policy according to traditional attitudes of East- West confrontation. This article describes four areas in which official pronouncements by Soviet policy makers are contradicted by the following actions : an ongoing campaign of disinformation against the West, despite promises of « no more lies » ; a continuation of information gathering and technology transfer by illegal means and for « dual purpose » uses ; in « restructuring » and withdrawal of troops and weapons from abroad, when both are then redirected to other geographic areas ; and appeals to Western investment in the « democratization » of Soviet society, despite evidence that what USSR leaders may actually be seeking is a Leninist peredyshka, or temporary respite from their current economic and social malaise.

Anatomy of a fiasco The technical backwardness of the Comecon countries, as compared with the developed areas of the world, is one of the main causes of their economic difficulties. This is why, at the beginning of the 80's, the idea of closing this scientific and technical gap, by means of close co-operation among all the Comecon member states appeared particularly attractive, especially since the same moves had been initiated in Western Europe. Thus, in the mid 80's, Comecon launched its « Complex programme », which ended in failure. The author sets forth the reasons for this failure (competition among the various bodies involved, shortage of financial resources, lack of flexibility, interruptions in the process of innovation, problems of management, clash of the various national interests involved), takes a closer look at the situation from the Hungarian angle, and finally wonders if there is any way out. The answer is in the affirmative, provided that the Comecon countries stop trying to patch up a moribund system, and make a fresh start from radically new bases. In the author's view, this process could take several years, possibly a decade, or even longer.

Biotechnology development and central economic management in Hungary This paper looks at the chances of biotechnology development mainly from the point of view of conditions created for biotechnology by the central economic management, which plays a decisive role in the biotechnology development. We try to answer the question whether these economic conditions are stimulating or detrimental on the biotechnology research and the application of new biotechnology processes and show that there are some very promising developments in Hungarian economy for the future of biotechnology but its several elements contradict the requirements of biotechnology development.

Regulation of value-added in State enterprises in Poland (1982-1988) This article deals with the rise in wages paid by State enterprises during the 1980's, when the process of reforming the economic mechanism was begun. The authors describe the theoretical bases of the reform, stressing the question of state mobilization of the economic surplus, and the use to which it was put. They affirm that, both in theory and in practice, the advantage of leaving the totality of value-added at the disposal of the enterprise was not even considered, and that the State has remained in control of it. There follows an examination of the regulatory methods which the State employed to distribute value-added during the 1980's, and their influence on the limitation of wage rises, on the State's sustained monopoly of accumulation, and on the use of coercion as the main instrument of economic power.

A French view of relations between the State and the Catholic church in Poland (1945-1955) Since the end of the second world war, Poland has been the most significant point of conflict between the communist regime and the institutions of the Catholic church. This is the subject of the present article, in which the author, relying on French diplomatic reports, details the various stages of the conflict during the so-called Stalinist period, with consequences that are still making themselves felt to the present day. The Catholic church, weakened by the losses suffered during the war, found itself alone facing the political forces, which tried by every means to destroy its unity, and by the same token, the unity of the nation. The two prelates who were at the head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in Poland — Cardinal Hlond (who died in 1948) and Cardinal Wyszynski — were obliged to act in a situation which was unprecedented in the history of the Church, and for which she was, on an universal scale, unprepared. It is against this backcloth of confrontation between the Church and the Polish state, that there emerged problems both for the Vatican, in determining its policy towards the communist regime, and the clergy in putting it into effect.