Lenin on Imperialism: The "Too Long; Didn't Read" Version by Doodlebug Anklebiter
Lenin defines capitalist imperialism as follows:
"(1) The concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life; (2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital and the creation, on the basis of this ‘finance capital,’ of a financial oligarchy; (3) the export of capital, as distinguished from the export of commodities, acquires exceptional importance; (4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves; and (5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed.”
Of course, there are other, non-Leninist definitions.
I remember, not too long ago, reading my old comrades' articles on Solidarnosc back in the early eighties and I was struck by their claims (which I never attempted to verify) that the Soviet Stalinists had a conscious policy to keep the standards of living in Poland higher than they were in the Soviet Union proper.
I don't know if that was a specific thing for Poland (Gierek?, Gomulka?, name from the past keep appearing, uncalled for, in my memory!), but I remember thinking that it was an interesting reversal of standard imperialist practice.