This little party had almost by itself - by sheer doggedness - postponed the presidential election and prevented the powerful leader of the reform Communists, Imre Pozsgay, from taking that crucial office.

When the old leaders saw the handwriting on the wall and began repackaging themselves as reform Communists, the true reformers saw nothing but the same cynicism, dishonesty and lack of principle that had characterized the Government for 40 years.

He was not a dissident; he was not a reform Communist.

The sentiment at party headquarters, a party official said, is that reform Communists and the opposition are wrong if they assume that creating the Presidium eliminated Mr. Grosz from contention.

The slate of non-Communists, ex-Communists, and reform Communists took about two-thirds of the City Council's 400 seats.

Who's in: Imre Pozsgay, now Minister of State, leads the reform Communists whose policies have prevailed in the last year.

Slovak leaders, including Alexander Dubcek, the reform Communist who has re-emerged from the political graveyard after the nation's turn to democracy, were meeting today in the old Slovak capital.

But he was a reform Communist, helping form a "leftist center" faction at the Russian Supreme Soviet and serving as chairman of its defense and security committee.

How does Z explain the significant numbers of reform Communists, including the radical group of deputies in the Supreme Soviet, who seek to reduce the role of the party and create a multiparty system?

His successor is Lothar Bisky, 52, another longtime Communist Party member, who says he is "between a left-wing social democrat and a reform Communist."