Traditionally, a Party Congress in Russia blends parliamentary trappings with jungle techniques. Beneath the solemn propaganda ritual, beneath the automatic votes on prefabricated resolutions by hand-picked delegates, there is a half-hidden reality: rivalries of men and cliques, hardheaded appraisal of how well the party leadership is doing. This week, as the elite of world Communism eyed each other at the 22nd Party Congress, the public mood was unusually harmonious. From jampacked bleachers in Mayakovsky Square, a pride of poets droned odes in honor of the event. To welcome 4,500 Soviet delegates...
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