34. EPITAPH FOR WORLD COMMUNISM
While repairing the links with the People’s Republic of China, the
Soviet leadership also gave thought to those communist states that had
long been associated with Moscow. The transformation in the USSR’s
foreign policy was causing obvious trepidation among allies and
friends abroad. When Gorbachëv made his moves towards giving
up Afghanistan, they wondered whether could they put faith in any
of his professions of support.^1 It made sense for the Kremlin to call
them together and explain the rationale for its initiatives. A meeting
of ‘fraternal parties’ was called in Mongolia on 16–17 March 1988.
Yakovlev attended on the Politburo’s behalf. Not only the East Euro-
peans but also the Vietnamese, Laotians, Cubans and Mongolians
attended. Most of those present hailed what Gorbachëv was doing in
the USSR and in his foreign policy. Even the Romanians behaved
cooperatively, if only because they were looking for support in their
current dispute with the Hungarians. A slight difficulty arose when
the East Germans denied the need for any ‘renewal’ of socialism –
not exactly music to the ears of Soviet reformers. Then the Cubans
objected to any idea about perestroika being up for export; they
also partnered the Vietnamese in their concern about the USSR’s
rapprochement with America.^2
Yakovlev had never had high hopes about the proceedings and
endured the implicit criticism without embarrassment. He knew that
the ‘world communist movement’ had suffered an irreversible wreck-
age of meaning and practice. Both he and Gorbachëv drew similar
conclusions. Neither of them saw any point in marking out a line that
the other parties had to follow. Gorbachëv felt no temptation to con-
vene a global conference in Moscow as Brezhnev had done in June
- The experience had been deeply discouraging for Brezhnev and
his Politburo. The Chinese, Albanians, Thais and Burmese openly
refused to attend – and the North Koreans and even the Vietnamese
quietly declined the invitation for fear of annoying Beijing. Dispute