DEMOCRATIC FERMENT BEHIND THE CURTAIN

...The ever-increasing complexity of Soviet economic, scientific, and intellectual development demands a comparable growth of well-trained, responsible, and imaginative people who can make the system function with the highest possible degree of efficiency...

...By daring to point out openly the weaknesses of Stalin's economic system, particularly Stalin's collectivization of agriculture, he emphasized his own right to follow a unique Polish road to socialism...

...The pressures for democratization at home and the pressures for equality between parties, so sharply emphasized by satellite developments and by China's openly-expressed determination to go her own way, are steadily decreasing the power of the Soviet Party to set one-half of the world against the other...

...Every one of the 9,716,000 Party members is obliged to study them carefully and to be guided by their precepts...

...It should be noted, however, that the last phrase is the crux of what the party calls "democratic centralism...

...Why the closed ballot, the list of Party members, all of whom must be elected...

...That is the hope...

...As yet, the new "liberal" articles do not appear in the satellite party statutes...

...Democratic Ferment Behind the Curtain by ARTHUR E. ADAMS While the West continues to speak of "Soviet totalitarianism," the leaders and writers of the Soviet Communist Party boast ever more loudly that the Party is being "democratized...

...Yet, clearly, the leaders hope to effect some degree of democratization...

...Why don't the central authorities ask our advice...

...Terror largely gave way to persuasion, arbitrary violence to government by law...

...then become obedient robots...

...Specifically, in the supreme Party bodies (the Central Committee and its Presidium), one-quarter of the membership must be newly elected at each regular election...

...We must keep the pressure on...

...The new Statutes open with a declaration that the bases of all party work are Leninist norms...

...He is the author of "Bolsheviks in the Ukraine" and editor of two other books, "The Bolshevik Revolution" and "Soviet Foreign Policy, Theory and Practice...

...Will their leaders come to genuine inter-party equality, as Yugoslavia, Albania, and China now do...

...And—let there be no doubt about this—government in the Soviet Union is still a one-party monopoly...

...The new Statutes place deme*ra$| centralism in jeopardy...

...This means that while Ivan and Sergei are now ordered to discuss "freely" and "openly," they are expected, when the Party has reached its decision, to stop arguing at once and fall into line like well-disciplined marines...

...The truth is that the Soviet Communists have indeed taken significant steps toward "liberalizing" party practices...

...the development of "activeness and initiative among all Communists...

...Altogether, the changes in the Party Statutes certainly do not mean that the Soviet Communist Party may become democratic overnight...

...In addition, we must continue and even expand efforts to get information into the Communist countries by every possible means...

...Collective leadership, first under Malenkov, then under Khrushchev, repudiated Stalin's technique of govern-taent-by-terror...

...Democratic centralism, expressing the leaders' determination to make all important decisions and to demand absolute obedience from every subordinate body, has not been whittled down one jot...

...Why not develop genuine and effective representative bodies at th<i highest levels...

...In a frontal attack upon tenured Party bosses and the bureaucratic power they amass, new articles provide for the regular turnover of elected Party officials...

...They have received growing emphasis since Stalin's death, but their appearance in the Statutes as the formal principles that are to govern all Party work give them new importance...

...Every word in support of freedom and self-government behind the Iron Curtain is another drop of acid eating away at Communist absolutism...

...openly to express and uphold an opinion until the organization has adopted a decision...

...Tenure is limited to three successive terms for the upper levels, two for the primary level...

...The dilemma is obvious: By encouraging the growth of democratic procedures, the leaders doom themselves to a running battle to keep within bounds the very forces they unleash...

...Khrushchev wants more initiative, more personal responsibility, more people actively participating in the work of piloting Soviet society toward the goals of material abundance he calls "Communism...

...Will bold Communists in the ranks call for the development of genuinely democratic party procedures—an end to centralism...

...Now they enjoy a specific new right: "to demand an answer on the substance of their address...

...Thus their significance for the Party thought and practice can hardly be exaggerated...

...Another sentence in this document carried the "democratization" of inter-party relationships even further: "On the basis of complete mutual equality, mutual benefit, and comradely assistance, the socialist states have established among themselves extensive economic and cultural cooperation that plays an important part in strengthening the economic and political independence of each socialist country...

...These developments are favorable to our interests, and we can no longer afford to dismiss them as Communist hokum...

...The pertinent new words here are "freely" and "openly...

...Yet the frequency with which the words "equality" and "independence" have appeared in the controlled press of these countries persuades one that party leaders are cautiously trying to consolidate their gains...

...Consequently, the Soviet Party's relationships with the satellite parties today differ considerably from Stalin's Red-Army-backed dictatorship over puppet parties led by men whose careers depended upon their willingness to kiss the "Old Man's" boots...

...chine by blood purges, exile, and mass slaughter...

...Party offices have thus been opened to a far greater number of people than ever before...

...Only with his death in March, 1953, and Lavrenti Beria's removal from power three months later was the balance at least partially redressed...

...Here lies the great hope of the West...

...In late November, 1960, the Moscow Conference of the world's eighty-one Communist parties confirmed and expanded earlier concessions...

...These leaders are too awkwardly situated to launch an out-and-out struggle for complete independence, which, indeed, they do not desire...

...But because of develop-ments since 1956, it would be far more difficult for him to do so now...

...That Khrushchev was maneuvered into signing this statement and probably had no real intention of abiding by its principles no longer matters...

...men who become skilled in city and provincial government cannot easily ignore stupidities in national administration...

...Well: Why a one-party system...

...In the other satellites the response has been more muted...

...As they discuss local problems, their ultimate questions will be: "Why did the Kremlin take this or that action...

...For the sake of efficiency they are willing to share with their followers the increasingly complex burden of ruling the Soviet Union...

...So, too, certain changes in the Statute articles give the Leninist norms significance they have not had before...

...the further development of "criticism and self-criticism...

...The Statutes call flatly for more public participation in Soviet governmental affairs and charge the Party with "developing the initiative and ac-tiveness of the masses as a necessary condition for the gradual transition from a socialist state system to Communist self-government...

...But men who learn to reason in the political arena cannot easily stop thinking at a signal...

...The new Party Statutes, adopted at the Congress, embody important "liberal" innovations and concretely express the Party's "democratic" intentions...

...When the new rules become official in Eastern Europe—with party law explicitly urging every party member to demand their full implementation —where will the process stop...

...Millions of Ivans and Sergeis will do their best...

...Should the need arise, Khrushchev might again use Red Army troops to suppress rebellion as he did in Hungary in 1956...

...He considers these goals attainable only if those in the ranks of the Party think for themselves and take a larger role in government Party affairs...

...Given a fraction of an inch, the Polish party leader, Wladyslav Gomul-ka, at once seized miles...

...Finally, our diplomatic affairs must be carried on in the sure conviction that the very processes of history are breaking down the Soviet Empire and the totalitarian party that rules it...

...The old Statutes allowed Party members to "address questions, statements, or proposals to Party leaders at every level...

...These statutes are regarded as fundamental law...

...These are defined as collective leadership...

...With patience and firmness, with active support for freedom and self-government for all peoples, we can hasten this process...

...In assessing their probable impact, one must recall that the peoples of Eastern Europe have had far more experience with democratic institutions than have Soviet citizens...

...Party members now enjoy the right "to discuss freely questions of Party policies and practical activities at party meetings and in the Party press," and "to introduce motions...

...However, since these statutes are slavish, often verbatim, copies of the old Soviet rules, it may be expected that the liberal passages will be incorporated during coming months...

...Denouncing Stalin's cult of personality—meaning his refusal to recognize any law higher than his own bloody caprice—Khrushchev, in the now-famous "secret speech" of 1956, ushered in a new era...

...These norms are not new in themselves...

...The main tasks of the future Constitution, he said, will be: "to raise socialist democracy to a still higher level, to provide even more solid guarantees for the democratic rights and freedoms of the working people, to guarantee strict observance of socialist legality, to prepare the conditions for the transition to public, Communist self-government...

...What should the United States be doing to help move these developments in the right direction...

...These, and a host of similar questions, should be poured into the ears of the Russians every day by all the communications media we possess...

...Khrushchev seems committed to make these rules work because he wants a more vigorous Party...

...The Congress-approved new Party Program enunciated the right of each Communist party to embrace policies determined in part by the national characteristics of the society it governs...

...Such recognition has been won gradually and grudgingly from Khrushchev himself...

...In November his writers and intellectuals began a daring campaign for increased freedom of speech and thought which thrilled everyone who believes in these necessities of human life...

...A notable line from this meeting's formal resolution reads: "All Marxist-Leninist parties are independent and have equal rights...

...He has had to give in partly because of the Soviet Party's own changing character, partly because of the evolution of new political and economic relationships with the satellites, partly because of unremitting pressures by satellites...

...Lenin, the father of the Party, was, on the one hand, fiercely committed to democracy and individual liberty, and, on the other, to the absolute authority of the Party's Central Committee...

...In all satellite parties the new Statutes of the Soviet Party currently are receiving wide attention and are "required reading" for all members...

...The concept of "independence and equal rights for all" among the Communist parties was confirmed by the Twenty-second Congress and by more recent events...

...We need to examine them closely and ponder how they may be made to serve the cause of peace and freedom...

...With the extensive de-Stalinization proceedings at the Twenty-second Congress five years afterward the Party surpassed all previous efforts to sponge away the taint of Stalin's autocracy...

...These "liberal" innovations arise from the leaders' realization that the Party must adapt itself to changing conditions within the Soviet Union...

...they shape their policies on the bases of the specific conditions in their countries...

...This question is already being openly discussed in the Soviet press, but not loudly...

...Satellite leaders apparently concluded that they too could condemn Stalin and all Stalinist techniques, including those remnants of Soviet dictatorship under which they still suffer...

...Bosses at all levels are thereby brought under increased control from the ranks...

...While the leaders find themselves involved in a conflict in which they must seek to adapt to changes slowly and cautiously, we can help by dropping questions into the discussion, furnishing ammunition, so to speak, for the men who want more rapid reform...

...It has also profoundly altered the relationships between the Soviet Party and its satellites in Eastern Europe...

...The days are long gone when aggressive Bolshevism alone qualified a man to run the steel industry, as are the days when a single tyrant could effectively drive the whole Soviet maARTHUR E. ADAMS, professor of Russian history at Michigan State University, is currently on an overseas assignment analyzing Soviet and world Communist developments...

...Over the past several years Khrushchev has been compelled by arguments and circumstances to grant concession after concession to the satellite parties...

...And will this mean, eventually, the breakdown of Soviet rule in Eastern Europe, the end of its dominant position in world Communism...

...They would like to tell Ivan, Sergei, and all other Party members: "Criticize thus far, but no further...

...Exceptions will be made for key men who have given the Party distinguished service, provided they win three-quarters of the votes of their electorate by secret ballot...

...in Communist phraseology "the diversity of the national peculiarities and traditions that have arisen in the course of history creates specific conditions for the revolutionary process, the variety of focus, and rates of the proletariat's advent to power...

...Subsequent events forced his hand...

...At intermediate Party levels the figure is one-third, and in all primary Party organizations the rate of replacement is half...

...Although it is hard to imagine Ivan rising in the new assembly hall of the Kremlin to call Khrushchev to account, he will undoubtedly do so at lower levels, when petty officeholders overstep their legal powers or try to cover up mistakes...

...Under these pressures, Khrushchev acceded, in November, 1957, to the Moscow "declaration of the Conference of Representatives of Communist and Workers' Parties of Socialist Countries," which proclaimed that "socialist countries base their relations on the principles of complete equality, respect for territorial integrity, state independence and sovereignty, and noninterference in one another's affairs...

...It is here that we should add our weight to encourage the trend toward democracy, to embarrass and restrict the Party's aggressive ideological centralism...

...The Party's professed determination to extend democracy to the people was repeated by Khrushchev in his speech of April 25, on the drafting of a new Soviet Constitution...

...Democratic notions received short shrift from Stalin, who focused his attention solely upon the aggrandizement of his own personal authority...

...This is a concise summary of an extensive treatment given by the Party's new "Program" to the problem of helping the people to learn how to govern themselves...

...Practically speaking, however, this principle does not preclude the limited expansion of democratic procedures...

...By strengthening the social and economic foundations of free societies around the world, we offer the Communists living examples of man's greatest political invention—self-government under law...

...the comprehensive development of inner-party democracy...

...Punishments for willful suppression of criticism have been increased to include expulsion from the Party...

...to implement them...

...What questions...

...Democratic centralism represents the predominant centralist current of Communist thought, the Leninist roadblock to genuine democratization within the Party...

...One way to do this is to defend the democratic way of life whenever, wherever, and however we can, at home and abroad...

...Why not at least more names than offices on the ballot, so that the voter has a modicum of choice...

...Why can't we, who know the local situation best, make such decisions for ourselves...

...At the Congress, the verbose attacks of Khrushchev and Company upon Stalin further weakened the once-dreaded authority of the Soviet Party...

...Extending the right of every card-carrying Ivan and Sergei to criticize, the new Statutes also make it somewhat safer for them to do so...

...Why do they cling to old policies when new conditions demand change...

...Yet they are infinitely sensitive to the weakening of Khrushchev's authority vis-a-vis other Communist parties, and they are swift to exploit any possible advantage offered them...

...Having made these concessions, Khrushchev maintains his control by means of military alliance (the Warsaw Pact), economic alliance (comecon), and political persuasion...

...The Statutes further instruct party organizations to help "the working people to develop skills in administering state and public affairs...

...Events at the Twenty-second Congress of the Party (October, 1961) dramatically marked the most recent stages in the trend toward "liberalization," a trend which has its roots in a fundamental dichotomy of Communist thought...

...This evolution toward democracy has already had incalculable consequences inside the Party...

...Today the satellite parties are formally recognized as independent from and equal to the Soviet Party...

...Think critically to this point...

...Despite Communist insistence to the contrary, time is now on our side so far as the Soviet Party's power is concerned...

...No one expects the Central Committee and the Presidium to relinquish their authority without struggle, but the erosion of that authority has already gone far...

...What influence has liberalization in the Soviet party had upon its relations with the Eastern European satellite parties...