Name Change Proposed, to ‘Democratic Socialism’

Communist Party leaders will consider a proposal to change their party’s name in order to regain the people’s trust, a spokesman said today.

Col. Gen. Dmitri Volkogonov, a prominent historian, proposed that the party change its name to something like “The Party of Democratic Socialism,” spokesman Alexander Lebedev said.

However, the idea is unlikely to win support at the 4,657-member party congress, a poll by the congress’ sociological service found. It reported that 80% of delegates favor keeping the name as it is and only 14% back changing it, according to the nightly news program “Vremya.”

But Volkogonov, a three-star general who has written ground-breaking biographies of Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky, told the congress’ section on party renewal that the name change is inevitable.

“In his (Volkogonov’s) words, even if the proposal doesn’t find support now, in two or three years it will nonetheless be necessary to take this step,” Lebedev reported.

The proposal came at a section meeting that was closed to journalists.

Lebedev said Volkogonov also argued that the current party name is a legacy from Stalin. The historian said Communist ideals have turned out to be “a lovely utopia” whereas socialism deals with more immediate, attainable goals.

“The renaming is not a goal in itself, but it’s needed to restore people’s trust,” Lebedev quoted Volkogonov as saying. He spoke at a briefing this evening.

The section decided the proposal should be brought to the floor of the congress, Lebedev said, without specifying when it will be addressed.

Several Eastern European Communist parties have changed their names or even disbanded in the past year in a struggle to retain vestiges of their former power amid political upheaval.

The congress, which began Monday and is scheduled to run for 10 days, comes at a time of crisis for the Soviet party. It is not in immediate danger of losing its dominance of the political scene, but its authority is at an extreme low, members are reported quitting by the thousands.