ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the tumultuous and ambivalent politics of the relations between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Sudan Communist Party (SCP) to account for the indicated Soviet lack of collegiality towards a partner in the fight for socialism. It highlights the situations in which the Sudan party endeavoured to strike a balance between its nationalism and internationalism to the chagrin of the Soviet party. At the 25th conference of the CPSU in 1976, the presidium called the roll of honour of communist leaders who died for the cause of communism in-between the holding of the two party conferences. ‘The Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet government,’ says Zirkavilov, according to Sulayman, ‘were behind that misguided political action’. Even Arab communists obligingly toeing the Soviet line shunned the SCP for holding to its autonomy. An Iraqi communist wrote recently about attending a conference of the CPSU with a group of comrades.
