Mollet in Moscow
HERALD, GEORGE W.
FRENCH SOCIALISM AND THE KREMLIN Mollet in Moscow By George W. Herald Paris A few days before Nikita Khrushchev played host to a group of U.S. industrialists amid great fanfare, the Soviet...
...The meal started at noon, and Khrushchev and his guests went on talking without interruption until 9 PM...
...Then, on Thursday morning, he again received Mollet alone in the Kremlin for over two hours...
...We no longer need opposition parties because we have abolished the class struggle...
...Even before Mollet left Paris, some of his critics claimed that he was flying to Moscow chiefly to pave the way for the defeat of General de Gaulle in the 1965 French Presidential election...
...Thus, the French Socialists left Moscow with mixed feelings...
...Khrushchev apparently feels that he has even less leverage outside the Soviet orbit...
...George W. Herald, a veteran foreign correspondent based in Paris, contributes frequently to these pages...
...The actual story is quite different...
...The cases of Yugoslavia, Albania and, more recently, Bulgaria and Rumania proved that Moscow was no longer able to impose its will on its own partners," one of the delegates said after his return...
...This, he continued, might enable the West to consider more positively a non-aggression pact between NATO and the Warsaw Pact powers that would constitute an implicit recognition of East Germany...
...He insisted on the legitimacy of his desire to extend economic cooperation with the West and consented to signing a communiqué stating that "any disarmament measures, concerning classical as well as atomic weapons, must be accompanied by controls...
...It would only play into the hands of Molotov, the Chinese and the warmongers...
...The visitors were immediately taken in tow by Soviet greeters who addressed them as "comrades...
...One of the French delegates reminded Khrushchev that the East Germans used to have their capital in Pankow, outside the city limits of Berlin...
...Not everything is possible...
...Yet in matters of political dogma, the Soviets remained as adamant as before...
...Trying to make the best of this situation, Nikita Khrushchev poses as the man who had it all planned that way from the start...
...Each Communist party is free to adopt the tactics it sees fit in pursuit of its goal...
...By and large, the French gained the impression that, within the next decade or two, the Soviet economy could be expected to move closer and closer to more moderate forms of Socialism, such as those currently practiced in Scandinavia and some of the new African countries...
...The French Socialist leaders' trip was hardly mentioned in the American press, but most Europeans agree that in historical importance it surpassed the journey of big businessmen organized by Time magazine...
...Still, the Socialist leaders found a buyer's market in Russia...
...And what about Berlin...
...No one from the French Embassy was at the airport to welcome it...
...When Mollet tried to explain why a plurality of parties was indispensable in a true social democracy, Khrushchev interrupted him brusquely and exclaimed: "Oh no, that would never do here...
...Thus, for the first time since 1921 when Léon Blum, refusing to become an instrument of the Supreme Soviet, founded the French Socialist party, both sides acknowledged that they were members of the same spiritual family...
...both sides simply agreed to further talks in 1964...
...the French asked...
...But at the same time they rejected all ideas for a new Popular Front at the present stage of Soviet evolution...
...And he cannot turn back the tide...
...The Soviet leader listened attentively to these suggestions, but gave no sign that they could form a basis of negotiations at this time...
...industrialists amid great fanfare, the Soviet Premier quietly received a delegation of French Socialists headed by former Premier Guy Mollet and Gaston Defferre, the Mayor of Marseilles...
...The second segment of the Moscow talks dealt with ideological problems...
...He is aware that they have retained a good deal of influence on the French domestic scene as well as among the other European Socialist parties...
...Khrushchev reiterated what he had told British labor leader Harold Wilson earlier this year: that his policy of détente and peaceful coexistence was no tactical ruse but corresponded to the vital needs and interests of the Soviet Union...
...According to those who attended the luncheon, an extraordinary discussion took place...
...We are nobody's nursemaid...
...It was felt, however, that his own intimate thoughts on the subject did not coincide exactly with those he expressed...
...Partly as a result of this, the Soviet Premier no longer has his old influence on the East European satellites...
...Khrushchev confided, for instance, that he would very much like to develop the plastics industries, petrochemicals and other areas of advanced production, but is constantly being hampered by old guard economists who still cling to the idea of giving priority to heavy industry...
...The French delegation arrived in Moscow on Saturday, October 26...
...The French Communist party was not even mentioned during the Moscow talks...
...The French visitors were of course unable to judge the sincerity of these statements, but they appeared persuaded by recent events...
...It was insinuated that the Socialists would ask Khrushchev to throw French Communist party support behind whoever turned out to be the nonCommunist, anti-Gaullist candidate...
...Thus in the final communiqué the German question was left out entirely...
...Ours is a state for all the people...
...If they agreed to move it back there, the wall could be torn down and the whole city neutralized and reunited as a token of German reunification at some later date...
...They remained as afraid as ever that the bear's loving hug might ultimately choke them to death...
...In fact, the French visitors were surprised by the frankness with which he and his entourage admitted having serious difficulties not only in agriculture but in the direction of a planned economy generally...
...No one expected anything more than a first formal contact, but things worked out quite differently...
...They were satisfied that Khrushchev's desire for peace is genuine and that he is making honest efforts to liberalize his regime within the framework of Communist canons...
...The first part of their talks was devoted to questions of foreign policy...
...The members of the French delegation took turns expressing their party's views on various subjects, while Khrushchev, though surrounded by his colleagues from the Soviet Presidium, virtually monopolized the speech on the Russian side: During the nine hours of debate, he talked at least half of the time...
...He told the French Socialists that the phase of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" was finished in the Soviet Union, and that this phase would not really be needed in other countries to secure the victory of Socialism...
...As seasoned politicians, they realized that such an approach would ruin all chances to defeat de Gaulle at the polls...
...In contrast, Khrushchev's own prospects are somewhat less brilliant...
...Especially since his trip to Belgrade last summer, a great many of these countries have ceased looking toward Moscow for an answer to their economic problems...
...In short, the Frenchmen got a thorough and up-to-date briefing on Soviet attitudes on most current world problems...
...As far as we are concerned," he declared, "each country, including France, must choose its own road to Socialism...
...He no longer seems so sure that he can offer economic miracles to the faithful...
...On Sunday and Monday the French delegates had a number of exploratory talks with Kremlin veteran Otto Kuusinen, Party Secretary ?. ?. Ponomarev and several members of the Central Committee...
...He also appears to feel that they will probably be running post-Gaullist France and that, judging by recent Socialist election gains in Britain, Germany, Holland, Greece, Italy and Switzerland, their friends are on the way to gaining political control over most of Western Europe...
...Khrushchev laid out the red carpet for them for the simple reason that he needs their sympathy much more than they need his...
...When the French Socialists broached the subject of German reunification, Khrushchev said that no such thing could take place as long as the generation responsible for World War II was still in charge...
...Khrushchev replied: "Berlin has no importance in itself, but it has become a symbol, and we cannot deal lightly with symbols...
...He seemed to want to wait until after the British, German and American election results are in...
...Nor did Mollet and his friends ask Khrushchev for the slightest political favor...
...By recognizing that Tito's form of plant management might be superior to that employed in the Soviet Union, Khrushchev has encouraged the satellite nations to interpret Marxist theories as they see fit...
...his guests had the impression that he tried to sound tough in order to protect himself against mounting accusations of meekness by highly-placed Party and Army figures...
...On Tuesday they were invited by Khrushchev for lunch...
...If someone in Moscow tried to restore Stalinism, he would provoke a revolution behind the Iron Curtain...
...Since the Frenchmen could not help returning the compliment and calling their hosts "comrades" too, this at once set the tone for the whole meeting...
Vol. 46 • November 1963 • No. 24
