124
PARTISAN REVIEW
in August, 1956. Zorine disappeared in
prison somewhat earlier, and
r
am con·
vinced he is no longer alive.
I
do not
know what has become of Chatov but it
is probable that he has shared the fate of
his companions in arms.
As
I
watched the screen,
I
felt
I
was
looking at a ballet of ghosts, or, better,
at a masquerade of the executed. Such
cynicism would suffice to ruin a master–
piece- if one can conceive a masteflliece
being born in such a social
env~ron
ment •...
Fraternally yours,
VICTOR SERGE.
P. S. Let me add that the less rrominent
survivors of those days were
al
in prison
(I
think most of them have been shot
since 1956) . To name a few: Hessen,
Gorbatchev, Guertik, Federov, Kostina,
Alexandra Bronstein •••
A Letter from Princeton
Princeton, N.
J.
December 29, 1938.
Sirs:
Dr. Thomas Mann has asked me to
thank you for sending him a copy of
the "Partisan Review's" fall issue. He
is very pleased by the interest you
have shown in his work, and is look–
ing forward to reading Harold Rosen–
berg's article in your winter issue.
As to the "Reflections on a non–
political man" let me say that Dr.
Mann, although fond of Goethe who is
the subject of one of his new novels,
has in his personal and spiritual at–
titude very little of the "Olympian"
thunderer to be approached only with
"trepidation", as you put it. There
is no reason whatever for trembling,
unless the approach, or attack, be
made in an unfair way. After reading
the whole fall issue with great respect
for the high standards of the contribu–
tors,
I
hesitate to believe that this
particular comment is malicious in in–
tent;
I
rather prefer to believe that
your author-with the best and sin–
cerest intentions-sometimes misinterp–
rets Thomas Mann's peculiarly ironical
and complex style. How otherwise
could this author, when mentioning
"Fiorenza", have overlooked the subtle
derision of the German General Staff
on page 46 of "A Sketch of my Life,"
with Its closing line about the officer
who addressed Thomas Mann as Herr
War-comrade: "and really the vicis–
situdes of the war hit me as hard as
they did these people" ... (in Brus–
sels, far behind the trenches).
Your author does not seem to un–
derstand Mann's attitude towards the
war. However, if one carefully reads
the whole paragraph on page 45 of
the same sketch, one will see at once
that Thomas Mann has no liking for
war and warfare; but with his deep
sense of duty he feels regret that his
physical unfitness should forbid him
to share the sacrifices of his people in
the hour of danger.
His war for the "moral and meta–
physical, not political and social tradi–
tions" of German culture he fought in
the "Reflections of a non-political
man". The author of this book is as
much an imperialist as Georges Sorel-·
in his "Reflections on violence"-is
an advocate of bomb-throwing terror–
ists with whiskers. On the contrary,
Thomas Mann tries to defend the Ger–
man soul against the onrush of "pol–
itics" in
g~neral;
against a plutocratic
and mechanized civilization with its
spiritual representative, the "Zivilisa–
tionsliterat", who afterwards got the
gentler features of Settembrini in the
"Magic Mountain".
When Thomas Mann wrote this
book he was a patriot of Germany as
he still is, even if he has to denounce
the Germany of today. When, during
the Czechoslovakian crisis, he advo–
cated military resistance "to the fullest
extent" against Hitler, he did so in
the strong belief-shared recently by
the eminent apostle of peace, Lord
Cecil-that Hitler was bluffing, and
would not have risked war
if
only the
democratic powers were firmly resolved
to stop him.
May
I
ask you in turn two ques–
tions: ( 1) What has given your author
the idea of Thomas Mann's advocating
"the status quo in certain capitalist na–
tions" ?
I
suggest he look up in "the
Coming Victory of Democracy" pages
57 and 58 where Dr. Mann is very
outspoken in his dislike of a laissez–
faire capitalism, a political democracy
without economic democracy. (2)
Will you please indicate me what are
" the most extreme and reckless polit-
