The radical copolymerization of indene (IN) with maleic anhydride (MA) was investigated. The charge-transfer complexes (CT complexes) between comonomers were studied by means of spectrophotometric measurements. It was found that the maximum copolymerization rate occurred at a comonomer feed ratio that did not correspond to the composition of the CT complex and the composition of copolymer. It was shown that rate maximum was displaced towards an excess of IN in the solvents with strong donicity. The Acceptor Number of solvent influences neither the initial rate nor the position of the rate maximum. Some kinetic calculations were made to assess values of the cross-propagation rate constants and to elucidate the mechanism of propagation of macromolecular chains.