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PART I SAN RE VI EW
the same fascinations of power and guilt: the mystique of the USSR.
Each success of the Soviet Union has conferred new delights on those
possessed of the need for prostration and frightened of the respon–
sibilities of decision. In a world which makes very little sense, these
emotions are natural enough. But surrender to them destroys the
capacity for clear intellectual leadership which ought to be the liberal's
function in the world. In an exact sense, Soviet Russia has become
the opiate of the intellectuals.
·.~
The Counter-revolution of the Soviet Union
The capitalist death-wish and the liberal treachery are more or
less unconscious obstacles to a tranquil passage to socialism. The role
of the Soviet Union, on the other hand, is highly intelligent, purpose–
ful, and determined. The USSR perceives clearly that the most deadly
foe of Communism is not the reactionary, whose blind folly will only
speed the disintegration of his own society. The serious enemy is really
the radical democrat who proposes to solve the problems of unem–
ployment and want without enslaving the masses and setting up a
police state.
So long as Churchill lived in Downing Street, Moscow knew
that Britain offered no competition in the struggle for Europe. But
the victory of the Labor Party in the summer of 1945 brought new
hope to all the people of Europe who still had freedom of political
expression. It signalized an alternative to Moscow which promised
the same economic advantages- and with political liberty in place
of the NKVD. It was at this point that the USSR stepped up its
attack on the Socialist parties and began its concerted policy of
hammering at the weak points, strategic and ideological, of the
already crumbling British Empire.
The Communist war against the Second International has been
a brilliant success. The Social Democratic parties of Europe have re–
mained steadfast in their traditions of caution, feebleness, and inac–
tivity. They appear to be doomed today, because the working class
does not trust their determination to carry out reforms, and the mid–
dle class does not trust their determination to resist Communism.
When the Communists do succeed in finally absorbing or destroying
the Socialists, they will have virtually attained their objective
0r
destroying the center and reducing the alternatives to the red and the
black. The crime of the USSR against the world is its determination
to make experiments in libertarian socialism impossible.
What are the motives of the Soviet campaign against the West?
