'
VARIETY
of the Soviet land from the Hit–
lerite scoundrels."
Everyone in Russia knows that
these hopes and predictions were
never realized. The Soviet -Union
did receive considerable help from
abroad; however, it came not
from revolutionary elements in
Germany, but from the "capitalist
and imperialist" governments of
England and the United States.
Not the solidarity of interests of
the world proletariat but the
solidarity of the interests of
the "world bourgeoisie" with those
of the Soviet Union sealed the fate
of Germany. The Red Army was
not victorious in 1942. because no
one came to its help from inside
Germany; it had to wait for the
Allied landing in Normandy.
At the fateful historical moment,
when the need for international
solidarity in its Communist mean–
ing was more pressing than at any
time in the preceding twenty years,
it failed to manifest itself. This
fact has initiated a profound intel–
lectual crisis. The mainstays of
traditional Communism have been
shaken. The theories have gone to
the wind. Hundreds of books have
been transformed into piles of
scrap paper.
Everyone waits for a new word.
It does not come. Formerly Stalin's
theses, platforms, and theories
poured forth in an abundant stream
and were translated into a hun–
dred languages. Now Stalin is si–
lent in all the hundred languages,
and the people read only his ban–
quet toasts. But Stalin cannot pos–
sibly draw all the required infer-
133
ences from the facts. This would
lead to an ideological catastrophe.
Instead, he proposes to plant a new
social system in other countries by
means · of his bayonets. But this is
a poor
ersatz
for the old theory of
solidarity.
If
freedom of the press existed
in present-day Russia, even in a
minute form, we should
be
wit–
nessing a great intellectual crisis.
But the crisis is developing even
without a free press, and the in–
ferences from historical events
made by thinking people lead in
various directions. Some advocate
a return to the old, traditional, pre–
revolutionary nationalism. Stalin's
"socialism in one country" always
contained an element of national–
ism, but it was consistent, in his
eyes, with internationalism; now
many rule out the latter. Germany
is a Sodom in which not even five
just men have been found; the
Germans are criminals and idiots;
their country must be destroyed.
The Soviet Union is Russia, thy
land of heroes and giants. Her
rights abroad are proportional to
her sacrifices. The progress of man–
kind is measured by the successes
of Russia. Among the peoples of
the Union not all are of equal
value; for instance, the Ukrainians
and White Russians proved un–
equal to the ordeal. But the Rus–
sian, that is to say, the Great Rus–
sian, is the demiurge of history,
because he has saved Russia and
world civilization. Such are the
chief ideological elements of the
new Communist nationalism. It is
