World: COMMUNISM: A WORLD DIVIDED

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The leaders of the Soviet Union undoubtedly knew that their invasion of Czechoslovakia would anger and dismay not only Moscow's enemies, but many of its friends around the world. The Russians doubtlessly also calculated that the storm of protest by other Communist parties would soon subside, just as it did after Hungary in 1956. After all, the tradition of loyalty to the "Motherland of the Revolution" is long, emotional and prudent. As the world's second greatest power, Russia can provide better than anyone else the money, arms and technical aid that struggling Communists in other countries need.

But nine weeks after the tanks rolled into Prague, the controversy within the Communist world over the Soviet action shows almost no sign of diminishing. Of the world's 89 Communist parties, less than a fourth have sided with the So viet Union—and most of those that have are small and relatively insignificant. There have been few changes of heart in Moscow's favor as the weeks have progressed. The dissenters protesting the invasion include the most important European Communist parties; they continue not only to criticize the Soviet Union but also to stake out in dependent positions. The situation is without precedent in Communist history, and contrasts sharply with the post-Hungary period when the parties loyally supported Moscow, even though many members quit. Unless the Soviets can somehow reverse the trend, Czechoslovakia may mark a major and historic acceleration in Moscow's inability to control Communism. "In the past, individuals were driven by their conscience to question Soviet actions," says British Sovietologist Victor Zorza. "Now whole parties are questioning."

Soviet Imperialism. Despite concerted efforts at persuasion and propaganda, the Soviets so far have only made mat ters worse. The act of invasion was bad enough, but the subsequent rationale for it that the Soviets have evolved is equally alarming to many Communists. Enunciated first by Pravda, the official party newspaper, and later by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in a speech at the United Nations, the Soviet Union claims the right to intervene in any Socialist country where the practice and purity of Soviet-style Communism is threatened. Popularly called "the Brezhnev Doctrine," after Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev, the new Soviet policy poses a threat to the sovereignty of any Communist country. No matter what doubletalk Moscow ideologues may use to disguise it, the new policy is nothing less than a doctrine of Russian imperialism—and other Communists recognize it as such and deeply resent it.

Refused to Sign. Not all of them live beyond the Soviet orbit, either. Last week three well-known authors, including the editor and the former editor of Novy Mir, the Soviet Union's bravely liberal literary journal, refused in Moscow to sign a statement supporting the Soviet stand in Czechoslovakia. East Germany opened trials in East Berlin of some 100 people who protested against the Warsaw Pact invasion. Ironically, among those sentenced to a two-year prison term was a woman named Sandra Weigl. She is related to Playwright Bertolt Brecht, whose works reflected his hope that Communism would end man's inhumanity to man and usher in a new age of justice.