How much of the problems in the Socialist/Communist countries of the Cold War era were due to the fact that they didn't get to trade with the West?

by jcaseys34

Everything I've learned about the Cold War era is that the two sides were extremely antagonistic to one another, leading me to imagine that the there wasn't much trading or cooperation going on between the two. In a modernizing world that focused more and more on international trading and cooperation it sounds like these sporadic Socialist or Communists uprisings were doomed from the start

yelloyo1

What do you mean? The Soviet Union did engage in international trade with the west for an extremely long time.