Private Talk

Dining with Marshal Tito at Brioni last month, Russia's First Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, his big mauler wrapped around a glass of slivovitz. gave a toast to Socialism. Said he: "Socialism is like an army marching. If one man is out of step, it spoils everything." Cracked a lesser Yugoslav at Nikita's bent elbow: "When a soldier is out of step is it the fault of the soldier or of the music that's being played?'' Last week the news from Belgrade was that the music from Moscow was still out of tune, and/or Yugoslavia's Communists were still out of step.

Tito, in his second week back from the Communist conclave in the Crimea, stayed out of reach in his White Palace. But an official spokesman of his government declared: "No decisions were made in the Khrushchev-Tito talks [which were] of a purely private character." Private or not, a lot of Yugoslav Communists were being told, officially and in gossip, what had happened at Yalta. "There was one unexpected thing," a Tito penman confessed in the official party organ Borba. "The letter circulated [by the Soviet Communists] to the [satellite] Communist parties . . . expressed the opinion [that] our country and its leadership is not Marxist. [This] is not in the spirit of the . . . Moscow declaration on relations between the Yugoslav Communists and the Soviet Communist Party . . ."

"That Dog." Rank-and-file Yugoslav Communists were getting an even more' sensational line on the talks. This was that there was a definite split in the top Soviet hierarchy, with pro-Titoists Khrushchev, Bulganin and Foreign Minister Dmitry Shepilov ranged against such anti-Titoists as Presidium Members Molotov, Kaganovich, Suslov and Soviet President Voroshilov. At a recent plenum of the Central Committee in Moscow, according to the story being circulated among the Belgrade Communists, Molotov (downgraded from Foreign Minister at the time of Tito's visit to the Soviet Union last June) had attacked Yugoslav Vice President Edvard Kardelj (a leader in Yugoslavia's 1948 quarrel with Stalin) as a "bourgeois diplomat." And to underscore Molotov's attitude towards Tito himself, a story was being told of a Peking reception at which Red China's Mao Tse-tung inquired of the Belgrade ambassador, "How is Tito?" and Molotov, standing near by, was heard to say, "That dog."

The visit to Belgrade of Communist delegations from some satellite states was being explained as a triumph for Tito's bold policy of more independence for those countries--but also as a sign of Khrushchev's inability to sell that liberalized policy to his Kremlin colleagues. It was given out that, although relations are improving (e.g., ousted Hungarian Premier Imre Nagy, who has Tito's backing, was reinstated to Communist Party membership last week), there were still many outstanding "ideological differences" between satellites Hungary. Rumania, Bulgaria and independent Yugoslavia.

The Italian Communist delegation, led by Luigi Longo, No. 2 to Italian Communist Leader Togliatti, was warmly received, and Comrade Longo was reportedly much interested in Tito's "workers' management," which he described as "direct democracy." On the other hand, the French Communist Party, rigidly controlled by the Molotov-Suslov faction, it was said, was dragging its feet on invitations to send a delegation to confer with Tito.

Unhelping Hand. In sum, what the rank-and-file Yugoslav Communists were being told about the Tito-Khrushchev talks was that Tito had not been success ful in strengthening Khrushchev's hand at Yalta. There was even speculation in Belgrade that Khrushchev, fighting a formidable opposition in his own party, might not remain long in power.

While all these down-the-line explanations were reassuring to Yugoslav Communists, they also performed another function. Cordially leaked to newsmen, they established Marshal Tito firmly in his role of rugged independent. Coming at a moment when the U.S. was deciding what further aid should be given to Tito, they seemed just a little too neatly tailored, as if designed for Western consumption. The world was still waiting for a full account of the strange meeting from Tito himself.

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