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17 Probs. Communism 57 (1968)
The New Crisis in European Communism

handle is hein.journals/probscmu17 and id is 517 raw text is: The New Crisis in European Communism By Kevin Devlin I n the history of international communism the Czechoslovak crisis of 1968 marks a turning-point comparable with the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the socialist camp in 1948 or the outbreak of the Sino-Soviet conflict in the early 1960's. Its complex consequences are still unfolding, but one thing al- ready seems clear: this was the rock on which European communism finally foundered. Broadly speaking, there are now two Communist movements in Europe. One grouping consists of the non-ruling parties in the West, at present in opportunistic al- liance with the independent Rumanian regime and (more firmly) with the Czechoslovak and Yugo- slav reformists. The second grouping, much stronger in power-political if not in ideological terms, con- sists of the five Warsaw Pact regimes, headed by the Soviet Union, which occupied Czechoslovakia with the aim of reversing the Dubcek course of socialist democratization. The occupation-a crime against hope, a crime against socialism, a crime against the future, in the Political Analyst or Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany, Mr. Devlin has authored many studies o/ Communist activities in the non-Communist world, some of which have appeared in these pages. words of the French prophet of revisionist com- munism, Roger Garaudy '-has created a widening gulf between the two groupings, which are now sepa- rated by a basic and apparently enduring conflict of political interests. That conflict existed long before the Czechoslo- vak spring and last summer's repressive interven- tion; indeed, it had found classical expression four years ago in Togliatti's Yalta Testament. ' In varying but steadily increasing degree, the legal Communist parties of Western Europe were taking the path of revisionist adaptation to their pluralistic, democratic environment-committing themselves not to the Leninist goal of revolution (which they I R. Garaudy, preface to La libertM en sursi-Prague 1968 (a collection of texts by Czechoslovak leaders, published in October 1968), p. 24. For the PCF Central Committee's censure of Garaudy's breaches of party discipline, see below. 2 In August 1964 Palmiro Togliatti died of a heart attack while vacationing in the Soviet Union. Over Soviet objections, his last memorandum-written in Yalta-was published by his successors as his testament. In it, Togliatti criticized Soviet reluctance to eliminate the remaining vestiges of Stalinism and to condone some measure of cultural and political diversity under communism. fie also charged that the Soviets were precipitating a permanent split in the Communist move- ment by their drastic policy toward China. For an English translation, see The New York Times, Sept. 5, 1964.

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