Long Beard v. Big Whiskers

San Marino is the world's oldest (1,648 years), smallest (38 sq. mi.) and least populous (12,000) republic. For the past four years it has also been the only Communist-dominated state west of the Iron Curtain. Surrounded by Italy, San Marino's fortress, La Rocca, overlooking the Adriatic, towers above the grey stone face of Mount Titano (145 miles north of Rome). By modern standards, La Rocca's massive, crumbling grey walls are not much of a bastion, but last week San Marino's Communists held the fort.

As election day approached, bright posters of the Communist-Socialist coalition and the new anti-Communist bloc, the Popular Alliance, were plastered on the ancient stone houses. Loudspeakers began to bray through the narrow streets. Shrilled one black-shawled peasant woman: "Why don't they both just jump off a cliff and give us some peace!" The People's Alliance, which had picked for its emblem the country's founder, Saint Marinus (who once bridled and saddled a big brown bear), shouted for its slogan "Vote for Long Beard (San Marino), not for Big Whiskers (Stalin)."

A few days before election, Communist Boss Gildo Gasperoni produced his trump card. "We expect to bring home 197 Sammarinesi from Genoa, another four or five hundred from the rest of Italy, and 130 who went to France as coal miners. That ought to be enough to swing the election, I think." On election day the expatriates came home with all expenses paid by the Communist-Socialist coalition.

The final tally this week showed 2,755 votes for the Marxists, 2,020 for the Popular Alliance. Communist Gasperoni could count for four more years on 33 of the republic's 60 representatives. From the Palazzo del Governo, in which stands the statue of San Marino's foremost honorary citizen, Abraham Lincoln, the blue and white flag of Sammarinese liberty fluttered--and beside it, the Red Flag with hammer & sickle.

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