A DOCTRINE FOR DOMINATION

THE Russians have a special phrase to describe their relationship with the Eastern European Communist countries within their sphere of influence. It is sotsialisticheskoe sodruzhestvo, which, translated into English, has a reassuring and almost beneficent ring: Socialist Commonwealth. Since the invasion of Czechoslovakia, however, the term has acquired a new and ominous meaning. It has come to reflect a departure in Soviet policy that some people suggest should be called the Brezhnev Doctrine, after Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev, whose brutal and brusque attitude toward the Czechoslovak leaders has made him a symbol of the Soviet Union's belligerent mood.

In the past, of course, the Soviets have always regarded it their duty to defend Communism against the imperialists. But now, as enunciated by Soviet Foreign Secretary Andrei Gromyko at the U.N. and by Pravda, the official party newspaper, the Soviet Union asserts the right to intervene in any member country of the Socialist Commonwealth where the purity or supremacy of the party might be threatened. Diplomats are uncertain whether the pronouncement represents only an after-the-fact rationalization for the invasion of Czechoslovakia or whether it is a major development in Soviet doctrine that could justify the dispatch of Red Army troops into other socialist nations, such as Rumania, Yugoslavia and perhaps even Albania, where Communism does not thoroughly conform to the Kremlin model.

Improving Defenses. In two private chats with Gromyko in New York last week, Secretary of State Dean Rusk tried to sound out the Russian diplomat about Soviet intentions, but Gromyko remained unhelpful. Gromyko was equally uncooperative during a chat with West German Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, who came away with the impression that the Soviets were unyielding in their determination to prevent the Federal Republic from having any further trade and diplomatic contacts with the East bloc.

The Russians also kept up what is developing into practically a weekly habit: either scaring or putting off balance yet another neighbor. Recently Rumania, Yugoslavia, West Germany and Austria have all received the treatment. This time it was Finland's turn. On the same day that Izvestia charged that West Germany was menacing Finland, who should arrive for a three-day visit but Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin. Afterward President Urho Kekkonen tried to reassure the Finns that the Russian premier had come only to allay any Finnish uneasiness.

Kremlin Dictation. As unlikely as it seemed, Kosygin may actually have sought to reassure the scrupulously neutral Finns. But in the long run, the only way that Russia can allay the worries of the Finns, or of anyone else, is to loosen its grip on Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, the Soviets are in the process of tightening it. Last week, after First Party Secretary Alexander Dubcek and two fellow leaders returned from another session in the Kremlin, there were disturbing reports from Prague. "This time the Kremlin leaders did not even bother to debate any point," said a shaken Czechoslovak delegate. "They just dictated terms." In fact, the text of the final communique, which, among other things, acceded to the Soviet demand for permanent stationing of some 100,000 troops in Czechoslovakia, was written before the Czechoslovaks arrived in Moscow.

When Dubcek demurred that such a large Soviet garrison would leave little barracks space for the Czechoslovak army, Brezhnev replied: "We could use about 250,000 of your troops along the Chinese frontier." When Dubcek tried to explain that his side had fulfilled the conditions of the first Moscow accord, Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny ordered him to shut up. The Russians told the Czechoslovaks not to hope that outrage among the free world's Communist parties would deter the Kremlin from cracking down harder on Czechoslovakia. In the words of one Russian, "For the next 30 or 40 years, socialism has no chance in the capitalist West," All in all, Dr. Gustav Husak, the Slovak party leader who was a delegation member, later confided to friends: "They treated us like scoundrels."

Anti-Dubcek Factions. Once again, the Czechoslovak leaders returned from Moscow beaten men, committed to imposing a fresh series of repressive measures on their people. For a short time Dubcek, who was reportedly in a state of near hysteria, considered quitting his post. But after a couple of days of recuperation, he and the others regained much of their spirit. Premier Oldrich Cernik, who had been in Moscow, implored Czechoslovaks to refrain from wry, between-the-line digs at the Soviets, adding in colloquial Czech: "What about some expressions of friendship, boys?" Similarly, Dubcek conceded on television what he called "deficiencies" in his policies and termed essential the elimination of points of conflict with the Soviet Union. At the same time, he pledged anew that there would be no return to the police-state practices that prevailed before his rise to power last January.

There were signs that the Soviets were growing weary of dealing with such resilient men. Despite their overpowering military presence, they still remain unable to find a political quisling to do their bidding. Even so, the Soviet press opened a new attack on the Prague leadership, There were also reports that Soviet army officers were encouraging conservative Communists to form anti Dubcek factions. The main problem is that Dubcek's popularity remains so high among Czechoslovaks that any move to overthrow him would most likely require direct Soviet military action and perhaps even the creation of a military government. Under those circumstances, the Kremlin leaders still seem reluctant to pursue their claims of total domination of the Socialist Commonwealth to the final logical, if bloody, conclusion.

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