ABSTRACT
Events have underlined the invalidity of the assertion that countries which have embarked on the road of socialist development would recognise the leading role of the Soviet Union. Also that relations between the Soviet Union and other socialist states could be based, on the international level, on the intra-party principle of democratic centralism. It transpired that the hegemonic role [of the Soviet Union] – irrespective of whatever slogan was chosen – provoked a reaction from the capitalist but also – in no less extent – from socialist countries. In the immediate post-war years it was difficult to conceive of some socialist states opposing the Soviet Union. These turned out to be Yugoslavia, China, Albania, and to a certain extent, North Korea and Romania. It was even more unlikely that socialist China would cooperate with the ‘counter-coalition’ . . .
