f.
0. MATTHIES5EN
horrified at the accusations against Russia which Matthiessen blandly
accepts as true; and as a result,
if
you could but once convince them
that Russia is what Matthiessen admits it is, dictatorial and corrupt
and brutal, then you might well have been able to break them away
from Stalinism. But this will not do with Matthiessen: he disarms
democratic criticism by granting its claims in advance and then dis–
regarding its urgency. He does not seem to care.
Matthiessen's malady is simply that he suffers from an advanced
case of calloused moral imagination. Here is a man who, considering
himself a socialist, visits central Europe and never once thinks to in–
quire (to cite one random instance) if it is true that the Russians have
thrown Social Democrats and other recalcitrant radicals into concentra–
tion camps in eastern Germany. Here is an intellectual who, in 1948, can
write that "no one I have talked with envisages any act of aggression by
Russia against Czechoslovakia," or that "the new (Czech) government
was brought into existence by the people of Czechoslovakia them–
selves, not by the Russians," or that "President Benes supported Prime
Minister Gottwald." It would be insulting to Matthiessen to suggest that
these statements are the result of naivete; nobody, absolutely nobody can
be
that
naive anymore.
In the name of socialism Matthiessen is ready to acquiesce, does in
fact acquiesce
to
the most brutal political behavior. That is why he can
become so lyrical about the young Czech Stalinists whom he met, with–
out once summoning enough moral curiosity to wonder how many dis–
sidents and "deviators" they might have betrayed after their party
seized power; that is why he can sit down to lunch with a scoundrel like
Zdenek Fierlinger without wondering how many Social Democrats he
had denounced as "Trotskyists.*
I have said that Matthiessen is calloused; yet the description would
not be complete without adding that he is sentimental.
If
he lived in
France, "I don't quite see how I could help being a Communist." Why
a Communist in France and not in America? In France he attended
a large Stalinist rally : "The impressive and heartening thing .... was
the sense you could have, in that throng of almost a million men and
women from all over France, of really being joined with a people's
movement.. .. They were there to laugh . . .. to sing v.rorkers' songs and
*At the last free Congress of the Czech Social Democratic Party there was a
violent dispute on whether to cooperate with the Stalinists. Fierlinger, leader of the
pro-Stalinist wing of that party, denounced as "Trotskyists" those Social Demo–
crats who wished to keep their party independent. One need not be particularly
knowing in modern politics to realize that Fierlinger was in effect putting their
names on a "purge" list.
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