ABSTRACT
The Soviet Union remained by far the most important and powerful communist state. The unity of the movement was broken for the first time in a serious manner in June 1948, when the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was condemned by the Cominform and expelled from the community of the faithful. Thus in 1977 the words "world communist movement" were bound to cover at least three political phenomena: the Soviet state and the communist parties outside Russia that proclaimed their devotion to Soviet policy. In mid-1977 the outlook for communist parties appeared rather promising along the whole northern coast of the Mediterranean. The greatest international attention was attracted by Italy, in which the communist party made substantial progress at the election of June 1976. Communism is an extreme revolutionary ideology, proclaiming an earthly paradise; it is pursued in some countries openly and in freedom, and in others clandestinely by brave men and women who suffer all manner of cruel persecution.
