LITERATURE IN OUR TIME
maintenance of a revolution in a state of hibernation. Still it must be
acknowledged that, insofar as it has honestly believed in the possibil–
ity, even though remote, of seizing power by insurrection, and insofar
as it has made it its business to wea,ken the bourgeoisie and to bore
from within the Socialist Party, the C.P. has practiced a negative
criticism of capitalistic institutions and regimes while maintaining
the outer appearances of freedom. Before 1939 it used everything:
pamphlets, satires, bitter novels, Surrealistic violence, overwhelming
evidence regarding our colonial methods. Since 1944 things have
become more aggravated; a collapsing Europe has simplified the
situation. Two powers remain standing, the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A.;
each one frightens the other. From fear, as we know, comes anger,
and from anger, blows.
Now, the U.S.S.R. is the less strong. Hardly out of a war which
she had feared for twenty years, she still has to temporize, to catch
up in the armament race, to retighten the dictatorship internally,
and externally to assure herself of allies, vassals, and positions.
The revolutionary tactic is changed into diplomacy. It must
have Europe on its side. Thus, it must appease the bourgeoisie, lull
it to sleep with fables, and at any cost keep it from throwing itself
into the Anglo-Saxon camp out of fright. The time has quite passed
when
l'Humanite
could write: "Every bourgeois who meets a work–
man ought to be scared." Never have the Communists been so power–
ful in Europe, and yet never have the chances of a revolution been
slighter.
If
a Communist faction should somewhere consider the
possibility of seizing power, this attempt would be nipped in the bud.
The Anglo-Saxons have at their disposal a hundred ways of annihi–
lating it even without recourse to arms, and for that matter the
Soviets would not look upon it favorably.
If,
by chance, the insurrec–
tion succeeded, it would simply vegetate without spreading.
If
by
some miracle it finally became contagious, it would risk being the
occasion of a third world war. For it is no longer for the coming
of the proletariat that the Communists are preparing in their respec–
tive nations, but war, plain and simple war.
If
victorious, the U.S.S.R.
will spread its regime to Europe; the nations will fall like ripe fruit;
if beaten, it's all up with her and the Communists. To reassure the
bourgeoisie without losing the confidence of the masses, and to permit
it to govern while appearing to keep up the offensive, and to occupy
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