180
PARTISAN REVIEW
For one thing, their studies are virtually devoid of empirical
content. They blast Stalinist Russia and the
Co~intem-at
this late
date there is nothing new in that-and then proceed to criticise
Marxist ideas by the simple device of inverting them. Thus they
reject the materialist explanation of the rise of Stalinism only to
e"ect in its place a theory much less scientific-a theory of ideo–
logical determinism. According to them, the origin of Stalinism is
not to
he
found in its concrete material and political environment
but primarily in the Marxist, and more specifically, Bolshevik
ideology.
Eastman traces the roots of Stalinism "to the religious
belief in a benignly evolving universe',' which presumably lay
behind Lenin's power politics. In other words, the dialectic is
responsible. This, we submit, comes with particular bad grace
f rom Eastman, who is so adept at exposing the Hegelian component
in
"Marx, for what is he doing here if not endowing a system of
ideas-the dialectic-with the demiurgical power to shape history!
Corey, more cautious than Eastman, is no less idealistic in
his expressions. "Stalinism," he
write~,
"being neither mere Bona–
partist reaction nor an immaculate conception, must have been at
least potential in the communism of Lenin," etc., etc. Agreed,
Stalinism is neither "mere Bonapartist reaction nor an immaculate
conception." But why pick Lenin's communism as the scapegoat
when one can point to other causal agents whose effect has mani–
festly been so much more tangible and substantial? What about the
failure of the revolution in the west and the consequently relentless
pressure of world imperialism on the isolated Soviet state? What
about the backwardness of Russia's economy and culture, a back–
wardness which gave rise to a fatal contradiction between the
newly-established socialist forms of property and the low level of
the national productive forces? As for Stalinism being "at least
potential in the communism of Lenin," we do not doubt it for a
moment; but it is equally true and equally meaningless to say that
the classless society is "at least potential" in the fascism of Hitler.
Frankly, :we do not recognize the author of a book called
The
Decline of American Capitalism
in these mystifications that make
ideological factors automatically potent and material factors auto–
matically impotent. Corey announced that he is "charting new
directions and landmarks"; the tone and content of his articles,
however, suggest more the panicky fugitive than the daring
explorer.
P. R.
