PROBLEMS OF PEACE AND SOCIALISM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 23, 1998
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: October 28, 1958
• Content Type: LIST

25X1A8a
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013 -5X1 C10b
25X1A9a
25X1A6a
Next 3 Page(s) In Document Exempt
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
THE NEW JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM,
PROBLEMS
PEACE AND SOCIALISM"
1. The first (September 1958) issue of the new international
Communist journal Problems of Peace and Socialism's was dis-
tributed late in August. The English-language edition of the
journal runs to 113 pages'ii the first issue and consists of a
statement from the' Editorial Board, 6 major articles, 17 short
articles, and a few book reviews and short notices.
2. As a widely distributed mouthpiece for the current party
line, the journal will be an important instrument in Soviet
control and coordination of the international Communist movement.
3. The "main task'"' of'the new journal is "the propagation
and further elaboration of Marxist-Leninist theory". At present,
this means the propagation of the basic strategy of the Twelve-
Party Declaration of November 1957, which substantially
modified the program and policies of the 20th CPSU Congress.
Following the extraordinary 21st Congress of the CPSU,
scheduled for'January 1959, the journal will "propagate".
whatever further elaborations (if any) of the basic strategy are
made.
This is the internationally used title. The English-language
versioh is entitled World Marxist Review and the French
edition is enUtle.d La Nouvelle, RevL.e Internationale. The
Swedish edition is. entitled Internationell revy. All carry
-the subtitle, "Problems of Peace and Socialism". The
journal is also published in Russian, Chinese, Czech,
Polish, Rumanian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Vietnamese,
Albanian, Korean, German, Spanish and Italian. The
Japan Communist Party has announced that it will publish
a Japanese edition.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
4. In broad terms, this program means a contia).uation and.
intensification of the international Con..--iunist Political, economic,
and ideological offensive. The main dig ectior, of his program
continues to be expansion of Bloc influence in the underdeveloped
areas via the "national liberation movement". Free World CP
tactics continue to be concentrated on supporting this expansionist
strategy. In addition to the global offensive, Moscow is intensify-
ing its efforts to smother independence of thought and action
within the international movement, particularly in the Communist
bloc.
The new journal expresses this two-pronged effort in
terms of the allegedly decisive shift in the balance of world forces
in favor of "socialism" and the "inevitable" collapse of
"imperialism" on the one hand, and the singling out of "revision-
ism" as "the main danger. to the Communist movement in present-
day conditions", on the other hand. The journal states that it
"considers it its paramount duty to fight against all expressions
of bourgeois ideology and first. of all against revisions vn".
5. As a concession. to the tactical pose of the "independence"
of the CP's and to those CP's, like the Italian and Polish, which
opposed a directive-type organ along the lines of the Cominform
journal, the journal specifies that it will not issue "directives".
Nevertheless, it has already done so in effect in the first issue,
by 'stating that it will stick closely to the Twelve-Party
Declaration, "which was approved by the international Communist
movement". With former Komr-nunist chief editor A. M.
Rumyantsev in charge, Problems of Peace and Socialism i under
close Soviet control. A good measure of this control is the fact
that the other members of the Editorial Board remain anonymous.
It will be interesting to see their stature as compared with
Ru.myantsev's, as they become known.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
6. In one of the advance announcements about the journal
it was hinted that it would carry articles by non-Communists, on
a selective basis. This has been borne out by the appearance in
the second number of the journal, which went on sale in Prague
on 13 September, of an article by an Egyptian, Khaled Muk.hi
ed-Din, who is not an openly avowed Communist. He is however
known in Egypt as a Communist; he is frequently quoted by the
Soviet press as a representative voice of Arab nationalism, and
was elected to the World Peace Council in July 1958, He has long
been a leading figure in organizational work concerning the
Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee.
7. Preparations to launch the journal encountered.
obstacles. It. took about a year and a half (from mid-1956 until
November 1957) for agreement merely to create an international
publication. The decision was finally made at the Moscow con-
ference of CP representatives, but nothing further seems to
have been done until a conference at Prague on 7-8 March 1958,
when it was announced that "some" parties had decided to begin
work "shortly". Rumyantsev's assignment as chief editor was
not announced until 15 May. Further difficulties concerning the
various language editions, title of the journal, publication and
distribution facilities, etc.., were encountered at a meeting of
CP delegates to the Czech Party Congress in June, and the
decision to publish Swedish and Vietnamese editions was not made
until the second half of July.
8. The formula used in the first issue of the journal to
describe its sponsorship (i.e., failure to identify the CP's which
took part in the March conference in Prague), leaves the door
open for further expansion of the Editorial Board. The sponsor-
ing CP's include the twelve Bloc parties plus several outside
the Bloc, none of which has been identified publicly. All, CPIs
are urged to. participate in the publication. Some of the editions
of the journal are published in Prague, and Free World editions
are distributed by established Communist publications outlets as
follows:
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 _ Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
English
French
Spanish
Norway
Central Books, Ltd.,
37 Grays Inn Road,
London, W. C. 1
Progress Books
924 King Street West,
Toronto 3, Ontario
CDLP
142, Boulevard Diderot
Paris, XIIe
Editorial Anteo
Calle Entre Rios 1039,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Kansankultuuri Oy
Simonkatu 8,
Helsinki
Forlaget Tiden
Dr. Tvargade 1-3,
Copenhagen
Socialistaflokkurinn
Thorsgatan 1,
Reykjavik
Norsk Forlag Ny Dag
Gr'Bnlandsleiret 39
Oslo
The Swedish edition is distributed in Denmark, Finland, Iceland,
and Norway. It is published by Arbetarkulturs Ftirlag,
Kungsgatan 84, Stockholm K, and the Responsible Editor is
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
K. Backstrom. The French and Spanish editions, along with
some Bloc editions, are also distributed through the Czech
Press Distribution Agency in Prague. The English edition is
published by W. N. Clark, 16 King Street, London, W.C. Z.
Analysis of the Swedish edition suggests that the new
journal is handled in the same way as the Swedish edition of the
defunct Cominform journal, For a Lasting Peace, For a People's
Democracy. Under this assumption, Russian and German
texts would be sent by air mail from Prague to the Swedish CP
publishing house, Arbetarkulturs F'o'rlag. These texts would
then be translated by a team under the direction of the
responsible editor of the Swedish edition, Knut Backstrom
(who was also in charge of the Swedish edition of the Cominform
journal, and the translator team is presumably the same as the
one that got out the Cominform journal). The Swedish edition of
the new journal appears to be a simple verbatim translation from
Russian or German texts. There is good reason to believe that
the Swedish edition of the new journal is not translated in Prague:
stylistically, it is very similar to the tortured "Moscow-Swedish"
of the Cominform journal. The Swedish. edition is probably
financed (including publication deficits and salaries for the
Swedish editorial staff) entirely by the CPSU, through the
Sovinformbureau office in Stockholm., The other Free World
editions are probably handled in the same way. *
A consistent misspelling of the name of the President. of
Argentina ("Frondiri" instead of Frondizi) in the English
edition suggests that the article by Alberdi was translated
from a manuscript in which a commonly used European
script form of the letter "z" was misread by an Anglo-
Saxon translator as an "r". The Swedish, French and
Russian editions do not have this error.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
The various language editions appear to have identical
texts,, but the format varies slightly. For example, the English
edition. is printed in page-wide. columns and runs to 113 pages,
whereas the Swedish edition has two columns on each of its 159
pages.
9. There has been a, delay in the publication of the Italian
edition. LtUnita announced, on 13 September that the first issue,
of the journal would appear in Italy only in, its French edition,:
The journal .will appear in Italian for its ,second number
(October). * The reasons for. the delay are, not known. They
could be merely technical,. although. the timely appearance of a.
Swedish edition and the substantial size of Italian Communist
press assets would seem to make this unlikely. The delay may
have been caused by some ,disagreement within the CP over the
issuance of a centralized. international organ. It is: known that
the Italian Party leadership was opposed to, . such an.or.gan, in the.
past.
10. Despite the delay and confusions encountered. in
launching the new journal, it is impressive in-format if not in
content. The first section consists of the statement ofthe
Editorial Boardand six lead articles, which, taken togetherQ
cover all the main theses of the current international, lin,e-
"peace" tactics, the campaign against "revisionism",
"superiority" of Communism, Bloc solidarity, and the Strategy
of "national liberation". The lead articles in the first issue
were written by Antonin Novotny (President of Czechoslovakia
and First Secretary of the Czech CP); Li Fu-chun (Vice
It has since been announced that the, Italian version,
entitled Problemi Bella, Pace,:e del Socialismo, will have
as its Responsible Director a former LtUnita reporter,
Francesco Colonna.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
Premier and Chairman of the State Planning Commission of
the CPR); G. Glezerman and B. Ukraintsev (Soviet theoreti-
cians), Jacques Duclos (Secretary of the French CP),
L. Tismaneanu (a Rumanian professor), Ostap Dluski (Vice
Chairman of the Polish Sejm Commission on foreign affairs
and a leading Peace Partisan). The articles elaborate on the
themes that the United States is "peace enemy No. 1" and the
main enemy of the independence of peoples throughout the
world, that only Communism can save mankind, that Com-
munism will win the world, that the Communist brand of
democracy is "a million times more democratic that any
bourgeois state, " that the "socialist" state must be infinitely
strengthened. before it can,'twither away", that the purge is a
permanent operation in China (repetition of the "rectification
campaign... at set intervals"), that the United States is behind
resurgent "militarism" in West Germany, that De Gaulle's
dictatorial. ambitions' are abetted by the "traitorous policy
of the Socialist Party leadership, that Yugoslav views on the
Bloc'.s co-responsibility for; world tensions are "embellishing
American imperialism", that the Soviet Union "is the leading
force in the camp of Socialism", and that relationships among
the, Bloc nations are wonderful.. .
11. The second section of the first issue, occupying
roughly one-third of the total, consists of short (1 to 4 page)
contributions under the rubric "Exchange of Opinions, " which
are presented as abbreviations of contributions to a discussion
held in Prague on 23 June (at the time of. the Czech CP's 11th
Congress) on the subject of the "Economic Crisis and the,
Working Class". More than 28 CP's, in. addition to those
represented in the Editorial Board, were announced as being
represented at the Conference. The Conference was held
under the auspices of the editors of the journal., The contribu-
tions printed in the journal focus on a key theme of the Twelve-
Party Declaration: "the world capitalist economy remains
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
shaky and unstable". Within this framework, for which chief
editor Rumyantsev provided a broad theoretical basis and
general political line, the jour-al contains contributions from
nineteen Communists. The main action topics concern tactical
applications of the strike weapon and the tactical problems of
the "national independence's strategy. There are significant
indications of sensitivity to the break with Yugoslavia (Israel,
Ceylon) and of hardening of the line in some places vis-a-vis
the "national bourgeoisie" in the national liberation united
.front (Syria, Indonesia).
The main theoretical discussion is supplemented by a
professional economist. Is analysis of the economic recession
in the United States. The article by A. A. Arzumanyan makes
the following assertions: (1) the "crisis" in the United States
is real, and it has extended abroad; (2) it is "likely" to lead
to a depression in the United States, and the "bourgeois
state" will not be able to prevent this; (3) however, "the crisis
must not lead us to the mechanical conclusion that a revolu-
tionary situation is close at hand, or conversely, that the
absence of a crisis signifies that a mass revolutionary upsurge
of the masses is remote." In other words, Moscow is not yet
prepared to draw firm conclusions about the political con-
sequences of another depression, or to tie revolutionary action
to a situation which may not develop.
The contributions of most of the other participants
in the symposium included "analyses" of the impact of the
'rcrisis" in their own countries, with emphasis on justifying
and illustrating the tactical link between "struggle for economic
demands" and for national economic development on the one
hand, and Communist political campaigns on the other (e. g.,
against "fascism" in France, atomic weapons in West Germany,
acceptance of the offers of aid from "imperialist capital" in
the UAR, etc.).
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
12. :There are some noteworthy omissions from the
symposium as summarized in the first issue. of the journal.
Although representatives from the following countries parti-
cipated in the Prague discussion in June, they are not
.represented in the summary: Great Britain, Greece, Denmark,
India, Netherlands, Norway, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador,
Iran, Jordan "and: other countries". It is also worth noting
that the Italian contribution is by Manzocchi, the head of the
Central Economic Section of the PCI, rather than by Velio
S.pano, a member of the Party Directorate and a much more
senior man in the PCI.
13. The final sections, under the headings "Activities of
the Communist and Workerst Parties", "Reviews", and
"Letters and Notes", includes some interesting items: the
issuance of the fifth edition of Lenin's works. in. which will
appear for the first time officially the famous "testament" and
a number of previously unpublished materials; an account of
a conference of the underground Dominican Peoplets Socialist
Party; a review of Luigi Longots 1957 booklet, "Revisionism.--
New and Old". This is of interest in that it seeks to discredit
the "neo-revisionists'r, whose appearance was stimulated by
the impact of Khrushchev's speech on Stalin and the Polish
and Hungarian crises, with. the tar which Lenin used against
the "revisionists" of his day. "Revisionist" challenges to
authority cannot be tolerated, since they waste energy and
.endanger "unity and solidarity ./which./ constitute the funda-
mental principle of the international Communist movement."
14. As a whole, the contents of the first issue of the
journal are uninspired elaborations of the Moscow line on. all
aspects of the world struggle and on the effort to suppress
freedom of thought and expression within the international
movement. The Twelve-Party Declaration is the blueprint
for the movement for the foreseeable future. This may be
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
embarrassing to some Communists, just as the reappearance of
a central organ, with all its evidences of centralized authority
and a strong Moscow accent, may embarrass theCPts that
pretend to be the staunchest defenders of national independence.
It will be interesting to see how the CP's make use of the' journal
and whether some Communists react as adversely to it as they
did to the old Cominform journal--which was a joke in many
party circles. Even if this proves to'be the case, the new
journal should in no circumstances be underestimated as an
authoritative vehicle for the international.' line.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
 25X1X2
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R000900250013-1