This could be a difference between West European communists and North American communists. For Europeans, the USSR was a place you could visit and where you cou

This could be a difference between West European communists and North American communists. For Europeans, the USSR was a place you could visit and where you could meet ordinary people. Before the war, many had moved to the USSR to build communism. Many faced the purges, and some came back disappointed. And many of the purges were public matters reported openly in newspapers. The reality was well known, but most communists chose to downplay it. Despite its faults, the USSR was the most successful example of their ideology. The rift between West European and Soviet communists started forming after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. The invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 was the final straw, as almost every communist party condemned the USSR.