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dated March 22, 1956: Radhakrishnan's analysis

The Vice-President, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, said in Patna on March 20 that the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party "has denounced the cult of the individual dictator and emphasised the virtues of collective leadership. This is a revision of the Marxist doctrine." Dr. Radhakrishnan, a former Indian Ambassador in the Soviet Union, added that the Congress had effected some radical changes in the policy and pattern of Communism. "It has repudiated certain past practices and announced some future plans." Dr. Radhakrishnan, who was inaugurating the Indian Council of Public Affairs, said, "We now have an opportunity to adopt an attitude of tolerance and accept the new Soviet attitude as a significant one and work on that basis. It would be unreasonable to think that the Soviet Union is still aiming at world domination by Communism through methods of violence. If we persist in a policy of distrust, we shall be held responsible for the continuation of the cold war strategy. Now that there are increasing contacts between the Communist and the non-Communist worlds, it is known that a socialist pattern of society can be established by the working classes who find themselves in political power. Soviet Communism is not the only type of socialism. There is greater sympathy in the Soviet Union for non-Communist socialist movements. It is time we give up our fixed ideas about the Soviet Union and work for a better understanding. Let us realise that it required great courage on the part of the Soviet leaders to bring about this reorientation of their policy. There is a new look, a new flexibility, far less fear and an anxiety to avoid war and achieve peace." Criticising military pacts, Dr. Radhakrishnan said, "The pacts and military alliances are the stuff of which wars are made and they are all rooted in the mutual fear of the great blocs.''

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