TRIALS OF
THE
MIND
Philip Rahv
After such knowledge, what forgiveness?
OuR
DAYS
are ceasing to be. We are beginning to live from hour
to hour, awaiting the change of headlines. History has seized time in
a brutal embrace. We dread the Apocalypse.
The newspapers recite their tidings: AUSTRIANS KNEEL BE–
FORE HITLER; NAZIS FLOG LABORERS INTO LINE. And
in
Moscow the State continues to massacre the firstborn of October.
What an inexhaustible repertoire of shame and catastrophe!
The first world war ended two decades ago, and its end was
preceded by the first workers' revolution. Ninety years have passed
since the most subversive document of all times,
The Communist
Manifesto,
injected its directive images into the nascent consciousness
of the proletariat. We were not prepared for defeat. The future had
our confidence, which we granted freely, sustained by the tradition of
Marxism. In that tradition we saw the marriage of science and hu–
manism. But now, amidst all these ferocious surprises, who has the
strength to re-affirm his beliefs, to transcend the feeling that he had
been duped? One is afraid of one's fear. Will it soon become so pre–
cise as to exclude hope?
Moscow, the capital of revolution, acclaimed by the oppressed of
all nations. The acclaim is turning to revulsion, but many still cling
to their faith-perhaps out of desperate need for some kind of cer–
tainty. At the third trial, as at the first and second, the leaders of
Bolshevism confessed to crimes and perfidies without number. The
picture they gave of themselves was so indescribably vile as to con–
stitute the absolute of evil. But let us beware of absolutes: all too often
they are but masks of the fabulous. "The monstrosity of my crime is
immeasurable!" cried Bukharin.
If
he told the truth then our original
conception of socialism was only a romantic dream.
If
he and the
other accused told the truth then all that remains for us to do is to
bow
our heads and listen meekly as capitalism-once again, if only
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