COMMUNISTS: Somewhere in Rumania

The first hint of big things to come was the announcement from Belgrade that Russia would at last make good on its broken promise of $250 million in aid to Tito’s Yugoslavia. Four days later came Radio Moscow’s announcement: Soviet Communist Boss Nikita Khrushchev and Tito had met “somewhere in Rumania,” Khrushchev had brought along a tidy delegation, including agile First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan, a trade expert, and 76-year-old Otto Kuusinen, former Secretary of the Comintern. But Khrushchev’s old partner, Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, did not come along, and he will not accompany the boss to East Germany next week, indicating either physical or political indisposition.

Two days later, a vague communiqué spoke of agreement on “concrete forms of cooperation.” But Tito, who insists that each Red state should work out its own brand of Communism, managed to head off any references in the communiqué to “the Socialist camp” and “proletarian internationalism,” two phrases dearly loved by Moscow to indicate domination of all Communism. The communiqué’s talk of “working to remove obstacles” suggested that obstacles are still there. Obviously, Tito is not lightly going to surrender any of his nine-year-old independence; just as obviously, he is still a Communist. There was perhaps a smidgin of truth in a Russian commentator’s remark: “The common objectives and tasks of our two countries are greater than our differences.”