VARIETY
tation. The crisis cannot be held
in check by police measures, since
it is an intellectual crisis. The war
knocked out certain mainstays from
under the old theories. Stalinist
Communism - the Communism
that we observed through a decade
and a half before the war-will
not long survive the military vic–
tory. The succession is claimed by
a tendency implying reconciliation
with old Russia and leading toward
the creation of a new-old Russia of
generals' uniforms and peasants'
linden bark shoes, a Russia strong
and poor, with a leader ruling, in
the words of the Tsarist anthem,
"to bring glory to us, and fear to
our enemies," with battleships and
political prisons, splendor and epi–
demics, champagne and perennial
famine. This trend probably has
more strength than can be gauged
from its individual, and legally per–
mitted manifestations. Emigre ex–
generals and admirals, old inter–
ventionists, metropolitans, depu–
ties of the extreme Right, strive to
join it-and they are joyously in–
vited to return home.
Expressions of other tendencies
in Russia are not heard, but this is
not because Russia lacks citizens
who want political freedom and
peaceful collaboration with the
outside world. On the contrary,
there are many such people and
their numbers will grow in the
course of the ideological crisis. But
there is no political aspiration more
persecuted in Russia than the aspi–
ration toward freedom of thought.
Among the numerous Stalinist zig–
zags and maneuvers through the
137
last two decades, now to the right,
now to the left, there was never a
zig-zag in the direction of political
freedom. Compromises were pos–
sible with capitalism, fascism, Hit–
lerism, imperialism-but not with
democracy.
There is, for instance, the great
success of Kron's play
Navy Officer,
recently staged simultaneously in
several Moscow theatres. The most
significant feature of this play is
the defense of human dignity by
the chief protagonist, Gorbunov, in
the face of his military superiors.
"Comrade Rear-Admiral," says
Gorbunov, "you enjoy tremendous
rights in relation to me. You can
have me arrested, tried, and re–
duced to the ranks. But no one
has given you the right to speak
to me in a disrespectful tone!" He
even challenges the system of espi–
onage and denunciations. Gorbu–
nov regards as indecent the con–
duct of a young officer who, hear–
ing "harmful things" from a com–
rade, informs his superior instead
of first speaking directly to his com–
rade. Gorbunov is depicted as a
man who hates servility.
The great success of this essen–
tially rather naive play is one of
many symptoms. In all of this there
is no indication of struggle for
freedom of speech, nor of any kind
of political program. But programs
come later; the espousal of human
dignity against slavish submission,
the challenge thrown in the face
of arbitrary authority-these alone
constitute a program.
DAVID
J.
DALLIN
