ST. GEORGE'S HALL in the Great Kremlin Palace in Moscow remains a magnificent monument to the glories of the Czars, a sculpted hymn to Russia's historic national interests. The only concession to the Communist era is a giant painting of Lenin in the antechamber. Inside the hall itself, huge chandeliers illumine white marble wall plaques celebrating the knights who won fame and honor in the Czarist army; shaped in stucco are Russian victories from the 15th to the 19th century. It was amid those trappings last week that the Soviet Union, in quest of another, far more difficult victory, assembled some 300 leaders of 75 Communist parties from around the world for the third postwar summit meeting in the history of the Communist movement.
According to the official program, the leaders had come to consider "the most urgent question of our time—the tasks of the anti-imperialist struggle at the present stage and the unity of action of Communist and workers' parties, of all anti-imperialist forces." But the participants knew the real purpose of the meeting. Alarmed by divisions and defiance within Communism, the Soviet Union was out to salvage as much as possible of its once uncontested primacy over the movement.
The task that the Kremlin had undertaken in convening the summit was formidable. There was considerable suspicion that the conference, expected to last two or three weeks, would turn out to be a debacle for the Soviets. Never has the Communist movement been in greater disarray. Once the undisputed fountainhead of Communism, Moscow has seen many parties grow distant and independent and others turn violently against Soviet primacy. It is not too much to say that the Russians can now command unquestioning obedience only in those countries where their soldiers can enforce it.
Heirs of Lenin
As TIME Correspondent Jerrold Schecter filed on the eve of the conference: "The issue is no longer unity. It is finding the lowest common denominator on which there can be limited agreement in the world Communist movement. Observers in Moscow believe that the meeting, and how it is carried off, holds the key to the success or failure of the current Kremlin leadership. Faced with a border war with China, the Soviet Union today must defend its national interests at the same time that it tries to justify them under the banner of 'proletarian internationalism.' In Eastern Europe, the invasion of Czechoslovakia has polarized the struggle for economic and political reform within the Communist movement. The diversity of Communist parties, the lack of relevance of the doctrine to specific problems, and the internal pressures—economic, military and political—within the Soviet Union have raised the question: What is Communism today? Some Kremlinologists suggest that the best way to seek an answer is to view the Soviet Union as a latter-day empire seeking to maintain its sway."