“Socialist countries waste time in the economic competition with сapitalism”. The letter of W. Ulbricht to L.I. Brezhnev as a prologue to the conclusion of the SALT-1 аgreement

The article presents the first publication of Walter Ulbricht’s letter to L.I. Brezhnev, dated November 17, 1966 from the Federal Archives of Germany, with the status “strictly confidentially”. The 56 page letter introduces Brezhnev to important topical problems, and mainly to the relations of the GDR with imperialist countries. Ulbricht pays great attention to the international relations that, as the author considers, are fraught at that historical moment with the danger of a new war of imperialism against the socialist countries. The letter reflects Ulbricht ‘s real fear of losing the GDR as a state, and he deliberately brings Brezhnev to the only conclusion –the military strengthening of the socialist bloc and the Warsaw Pact countries, with him at the head. The economy of the capitalist countries is thought by Ulbricht to prevail historically over the socialist sector economy and he calls for not competing with them so as not to waste time. According to Ulbricht, the social and ideological foundations of the socialist countries dominate over the capitalist ones due to the working people support. Much attention is also paid in the letter to the possibility of uniting the GDR and the FRG, which can happen exclusively on the basis of the victory of socialist ideas in the FRG, which, he notes, is not possible at the moment.

1. Haberl-Yakovleva, G.A. (2013), “ ’An overview note for Kosygin’: From the history of scientific and technological cooperation between the USSR and the GDR (1965– 1970) // RSUH Bulletin. Series “History. Fiction Studies. Language Studies. Cultural Studies”, vol. 111, no 10, pp. 147–156.