Dancing the Gopak

The port of Le Havre (pop. 140,000) is the largest French city with a Communist-controlled council and a Communist mayor. It was just the place for the battered party to hold its 14th national congress. Red flags decked the streets as 800 delegates, tieless and in shirtsleeves, trouped into Le Havre's vast, unfinished city hall. They had gathered to give obedience to Maurice Thorez.

Nowhere outside the Iron Curtain had the cult of personality operated more strongly than it had in France. On his 50th birthday in 1950 the faithful thronged to an exhibit to see 20 painted portraits of Thorez; the editor of L'Humanite said that Thorez "gave me inspiration to write"; a critic compared Thorez' writings to Descartes' and Montaigne's, and another said he "makes artists paint, scientists discover, writers write." This ex-miner who sat out the war in Moscow was also able to outfit himself with a limousine and three houses, including a $70,000 villa on the Riviera. Such glorification is in disfavor these days, but Thorez was not willing to let repression go too far: "One should riot confuse the personality cult," he said, "with demonstrations of affection and confidence."

Last week, in full control of his party, Thorez arranged a new show of affection and confidence. He had ordered the provincial delegates carefully screened to get rid of what were referred to as a "few unnerved and impatient comrades." Actually, by the party's own admission, membership since 1948 has fallen off by 500,000. Leaning on his cane, ailing Maurice Thorez laid down the line at the party congress with a two-hour opening speech whose doctrinaire finality made the "democratic" discussion that followed anticlimactic. "This is not a debating society," he cried. "Discussion ends when a decision is made, and everyone must obey." Halfway through his speech Thorez faltered. "I must rest," he croaked, and a half-hour break was declared. Despite what he touted as the miracle of Soviet medicine, his ailments (partial paralysis from a stroke) still trouble him.

Soviet Presidium Member Mikhail Suslov, whose presence was proof of Thorez' Moscow backing, looked on approvingly as Thorez was re-elected and delegate after delegate rose to accept his guidance. One was "in complete agreement with Comrade Thorez," another in "unanimous accord," another laudatory "without reserve." It was the solidarity of those willing to dance the gopak on demand.

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