Word: sofia
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...ninth World Youth Festival convened last week in Sofia, Bulgaria. As in all Communist-dominated slogan-fests, the talk in delegates' dormitories and around restaurant tables rang with indignation and accusation. No one, protested one young Rumanian Communist, has any right to interfere "in the internal affairs of other people." Was he lambasting the U.S. role in Viet Nam, as usual? Not at all. He was talking about the Soviet Union's squeeze on Czechoslovakia - a matter that exercised many of the 15,000 delegates far more than the festival's official theme of "solidarity with...
...Socialist youths in Sofia symbolized and expressed the widespread sentiment of Communist parties across Europe. It was this opposition, the prospect of profoundly splitting the already splintered Communist world, that was a big factor in the outcome of the Russian-Czechoslovak confrontation. In a memorable turn of events, Russia last week backed down on nearly all its demands of Alexander Dubcek's reformist regime in Czechoslovakia (see following story...
...more peculiar facets of Communist protocol is the hearty hugging and kissing that accompanies every meeting. As they gathered last week in Sofia to review the seven-nation War saw military pact, the Soviet bloc's top bosses traded hugs and kisses aplenty. Bulgaria's Premier and Party Boss Todor Zhivkov, the host, Russia's Leonid Brezhnev and Aleksei Kosygin, Czechoslovakia's Alexander Dubček and Rumania's Nicolae Ceausescu-all greeted each other effusively. As the second high-level Communist meeting in as many weeks wore on, however, the bruises soon outnumbered...
Once again the troublemaker was Rumania's Ceausescu, the rising independent who had cried foul at Russia's takeover of the Budapest conference two weeks ago and ordered his delegation home. In Sofia, he had further grievances to air, starting with the nu clear nonproliferation treaty now being negotiated in Geneva; the Rumanians think that any treaty should curb stockpiling among nuclear haves and provide tight protection for have-nots like themselves. Also, as the. only Communist there on friendly terms with West Germany and Israel, Ceausescu gave notice that he would not join in the usual attacks...
...real extent of Rumania's break with Russia will become evident this week, when the Rumanians have to decide whether or not to attend a meeting of Warsaw Pact countries in Sofia. Even if the Rumanians finally decide to go, Ceausescu's decision to pull out of last week's meeting left the Kremlin in a quandary. Though it now has no serious opposition to its plans for a top-level meeting, it also has less to gain than ever if it occurs. Once intent on isolating Maoism at a summit meeting, Soviet Marxists now stand...