Cominform

Cominform is named as the Soviet counterpart to NATO in a compact account of postwar rivalry. Its significance in the novel lies in that pairing: it becomes one move in a sequence of reciprocal responses through which Richard Vanderwhile describes relations between the two countries as predictable, almost like a game of tennis.

Mention and Setting

The reference occurs during Richard Vanderwhile’s conversation with Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov. Richard has explained that he is to work from the embassy in Paris for the next few years, overseeing an initiative that will keep him tied to a desk. Sitting forward on the couch, he turns from this personal news to the strained but predictable relations between the countries since the war.

Richard lists the Marshall Plan and the Molotov Plan as corresponding initiatives, then pairs NATO with Cominform, and the American and Soviet atom bombs. He presents these developments as exchanges in an ongoing contest, not as isolated events. After pouring them both vodka, he offers a toast, making the political overview part of a private conversation rather than a formal exposition.

Place in the Postwar Rivalry

In Richard’s account, Cominform occupies the Soviet side of a pattern of answer and counteranswer. The comparison places it beside NATO, while the surrounding examples—economic plans and atomic weapons—make clear that he is describing a broad contest between the countries. His tennis analogy gives the sequence a brisk, almost spectator-like rhythm: one side acts, the other responds, and the pattern appears stable enough to be entertaining to watch.

That framing establishes a correspondence, not an equivalence of institutional purpose or structure. The scene identifies Cominform as a Soviet response in Richard’s diplomatic shorthand, but it does not explain its membership, organization, policies, or specific activities. The name matters here chiefly as one element in the larger inventory of reciprocal postwar moves.

Narrative Significance

The conversation compresses international history into a few paired names, placing Cominform within the political landscape against which the characters’ immediate lives unfold. Richard’s summary makes rivalry seem orderly and predictable; its tennis metaphor also distances the speakers from the consequences of the competition by casting it as something watched as well as played. The novel uses Cominform in this moment as a marker of that tense balance, without pausing to turn the scene into an institutional history.