Northern (N): Soviet Union (NS). Trends in Communist Policy

A file of correspondence and reports concerning political developments in communist countries. The documents contain a series of reports produced by the Foreign Office on "trends in communist policy" between September and December 1958, covering the resumption of Soviet nuclear testing; and the Taiwan Strait Crisis, during which Chinese artillery shelled Taiwanese islands in an attempt to probe the extent to which Taiwan could rely on the United States of America for defence. Other reports comment on industrial and agricultural developments in China; a visit to Moscow by a delegation of leading Polish politicians, which "appeared to demonstrate Polish-Soviet solidarity"; and the publication of a memorandum by Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, outlining proposals for the reform of the Soviet education system. The reports also discuss a recent warming of relations between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia; and the cessation of Soviet attempts to organise an international disarmament conference.