The Opposition

The biggest political news in Europe was the rise of a new Opposition. It was the Opposition to Communism and to the occupying Red armies, and it was rising in the countries where any opposition was a miracle. The might of the Red armies, the vigor and vigilance of the Communist parties had not been enough to prevent this phenomenon in Hungary, Austria, Rumania, Bulgaria, Poland, Yugoslavia.

There were signs that the Russians themselves, usually astute in such matters, had recognized the existence of a genuine, popular Opposition and were adjusting themselves to the facts of political life in their European sphere.

Last week, as election time arrived or approached in the Russian orbit, the Opposition made the news.

Half a Victory? The war had stimulated the growth of Communism, but nowhere had the Soviet military arm presented the Soviet political arm with an absolute victory. Communist parties were still minority parties, albeit stronger, more experienced, more effective. Throughout Russia's eastern bastion, Communist tails were wagging non-Communist dogs with the utmost adroitness, but with increasing difficulty.

In Bulgaria, the Fatherland Front of Premier Kimon Georgieff was being openly opposed by Agrarians, Social Democrats, plain Democrats, so-called Radicals.

Such Bulgarian Communists as famed Georgi Dimitroff and his once beautiful, now eloquent lieutenant, Tsola Dragoicheva (see cut), were having no easy time.

U.S. and British representatives in Sofia, who had strongly encouraged the Opposition parties, felt that they had thrown away a golden chance by deciding to boycott the approaching national elections (Nov. 18).

In Rumania, as in other countries, the Opposition was often split, inside and outside the Cabinet. But the Opposition itself was unmistakable. Both National Liberal leader Constantin Dinu Bratianu and Peasant Party chief Juliu Maniu flatly advocated overthrow of the Moscow-backed regime of Premier Peter Groza. Mostly the Opposition program was negatively antiCommunist, but last week Maniu made a positive point : let the U.S. and Britain help the Opposition by recognizing a reconstructed Rumanian Government.

In Poland, already so recognized, only the feeble Labor Party, headed by Karol Popiel, existed legally outside the coalition Government of Premier Edward Osubka-Morawski. But within the coalition, the new Polish Peasant Party, headed by Vice Premier Stanislaw Mikolajczyk (who was in the U.S. last week, on his way home from an international food conference), was making notable strides. Mikolajczyk and his followers were not fighting the Communists or the Russians outright, but they were fighting for a free Poland along the line laid down by the late, great Wincenty Witos (see MILESTONES).

Even Yugoslavia had an Opposition. In the tightest police state in Russia's Europe, Dr. Milan Grol and his Serb Democratic Party published an Opposition newspaper, campaigned actively against Tito. They had little hope of swaying the Nov. 11 elections, but they were trying. In Austria, where free elections are to be held under Big Three auspices on Nov. 25, the total Communist vote is not expected to exceed 15%.

Rough, Tough Army. But it was in Hungary that the reaction was strongest. There the moderate, non-Communist Small Holders' Party, which recently jolted the Communists in the Budapest municipal election, this week repeated its feat by a great victory in the national elections. The fact that Stalin's closest friend and adviser in the Red Army command, Marshal Klimenti Voroshilov, had been stationed there as the occupation chief attested the political importance of Hungary to the Russians.

Wherever the means existed, the Opposition was beginning to speak its mind. And it spoke loudest under the heel of occupation. No army of occupation is popular, and the rough, tough Red Army is an unrivaled ambassador of ill will. The longer the Russians stayed, the longer their presence and policy were resented. Indeed, Communist parties tended to put up better performances in countries where the Red Army had not settled like locusts (e.g., France, Denmark).

Signs multiplied that Moscow was disturbed at the growth of independence in the hinterland between Europe's east and west. The problem of handling a vigorous Opposition on Russia's doorstep called for more delicate treatment than the Kremlin was accustomed to prescribe.

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