p In all parts of the world and in all spheres of its activity imperialism comes into collision with socialism, notably with the Soviet Union, which is the main barrier to imperialist ambitions. For that reason imperialism regards the USSR as its principal adversary and its attacks are directed chiefly against it.

p Bourgeois politicians, ideologists and scholars understand the significance and effects of the USSR’s growing influence on world development. Typical in this respect is the admission by the US Professor Arthur F. Adams, who studies the development and influence of the Soviet Union: “Since the end of the Second World War a paramount problem for the Western world has been represented by the dynamic growth of the Soviet Union and by the continuing spread of world communism from. .. its Soviet centre.”^^1^^

p Drawing on the accumulated experience of struggle against the USSR, imperialist bourgeois politicians and ideologists are devising new ways and means of fighting socialism. Today the main arena of the struggle between the two world systems is ideology, and ideological subversion is the chief weapon of anti-communism.

p Ideological subversion, which has in recent years been dubbed “psychological warfare” by its authors, has always had an important place in imperialism’s struggle against 111 socialism. Its substance consists principally of anti-Sovietism, of efforts to slander the Soviet socialist system, downgrade the experience of building the new society in the USSR and falsify the policies pursued by the CPSU. To this day antiSovietism remains the central feature of anti-communism and it is spearheaded at the CPSU, which is the leading force of Soviet society.

p The imperialist doctrine of “building bridges” envisages, on the one hand, an expansion of economic, political and cultural contacts and links with socialist countries and, on the other, the extension of the war of ideas to socialist society and bringing ideological pressure to bear on its members. As conceived by the strategists of anti-communism, this may bring about ideological changes that will eventually lead to political changes. What kind of changes they sought to achieve was demonstrated by the events of 1968 in Czechoslovakia, when counter-revolutionary and anti-socialist forces tried to nullify that country’s socialist gains.

p The hopes set by the imperialist strategists on an ideological war against socialism and the USSR are linked with the plans not only to ensure the survival of capitalism but also to weaken and undermine socialism. For instance, in studies prepared in 1967 for the US Congress, it is emphasised that the outcome of the struggle between the two worlds will be settled not by military means, not by nuclear weapons, but by propaganda.^^2^^

p Through ideological subversion imperialist propaganda strives to disseminate bourgeois ideology among the people of the socialist world, influence them, make them distrustful of the Communist parties, deprive these parties of the support of the masses and thereby weaken the socialist states.

The character, scale and methods of ideological subversion against socialism were noted by the 24th Congress of the CPSU: “We are living under conditions of unabating ideological struggle, which imperialist propaganda is waging against our country, against the world of socialism, using 112 the most subtle methods and powerful technical means. All the instruments that the bourgeoisie has of influencing minds—the press, cinema and radio—have been mobilised to delude people, to make them believe that under capitalism they are living in a near-paradise, and to slander social- ism.”^^3^^