“The Fur’s Flying” (April 14, 1964)
by Eddie Germano (1924 – )
11 x 15 in., ink and wash on board
Coppola Collection

A native Bostonian, Germano became a full-time cartoonist in 1948, at age 24, after serving in WWII. Among other positions, he worked as the editorial and sports cartoonist for the Brockton Enterprisefrom 1963-1990.

In the 1960s, the Sino-Soviet split allowed only written communications between the PRC and the USSR, in which each country supported their geopolitical actions with formal statements of Marxist–Leninist ideology as the true road to world communism, which is the general line of the party.

In June 1963, the PRC published The Chinese Communist Party’s Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement, to which the USSR replied with the Open Letter of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; each ideological stance perpetuated the Sino-Soviet split.

In 1964, Mao said that, in light of the Chinese and Russian differences about the interpretation and practical application of Orthodox Marxism, a counter-revolution had occurred and re-established capitalism in the USSR; consequently, following Soviet suit, the Warsaw Pact countries broke relations with the People’s Republic of China.

On April 3, 1964, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union issued a statement calling the Communist Party of China “the main danger to the unity of the world communist movement,” and called for a summit of the leaders of the world’s communist parties. Printed in the party newspaper Pravda, they wrote “Peking is steering a course toward a split among the communist parties, toward the setting up of factions and groups hostile to Marxism-Leninism.”