ABSTRACT
The progress and prospects of communism since the war outside the communist zone can most conveniently be considered by several regions —Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Three small European countries—Finland, Greece and Austria —though subjected to heavy communist pressure and geographically exposed to attack from Russia or her satellites, successfully resisted. In Latin America the old social and racial conflicts remained unsolved, while industrial development increased the importance of the working class, Communism was still a small force, but it gained ground. The communists' political hold over the French workers was most useful to them through its effect on the socialists. The formation of an Italian government without communists coincided in time with the similar event in France and with the opposite event in Hungary. Differences in the development of the communist movements of the different countries were in part a result of differences in the policies of the returning imperial governments towards the nationalist movements.
