RHETORIC AND PEACE
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classless society. Therefore, pacifism was an "opportunist deviation,"
as Lenin usually described it.
But once Communism, through successful revolution in the Russian
Empire, was in command of a great state power, the pacifist potential
could be estimated very differently. The advance of the world revolution
was now identical with the defense and extension of the Soviet state
power. Therefore any action which caused a relative weakening of the
rival state powers meant a step forward along the revolutionary road.
The spread of pacifist ideas, sentiments, and organizations within the
rival powers meant their weakening. And therefore the Communist
high command drew the conclusion that pacifism should be deliberately
promoted outside the Soviet borders, in spite of its formal inconsistency
with Communist doctrine. This was, of course, a "dialectical strategy'"
on the one hand,
within
the Soviet sphere, pacifist ideas and sentiments
would be rigorously suppressed-and, indeed, social energies would
be
channeled predominantly into war preparations; on the other, in dialec–
tical contrast, pacifism, disarmament, etc., would be promoted to a
maximum degree within the rival, non-Communist nations.
From this strategic conclusion flowed during the 1930's the great
world network of pacifist and semi-pacifist congresses, committees, and
organizations with which some of us here today became intimately
acquainted. In Western Europe, many of these, beginning with the
so-called Amsterdam-Pleyel Congress in 1932, were fruits of the organiza–
tional genius of the talented Comintern agent, Willi Miinzenburg.
Today, the Communist strategy with respect to the uses of pacifism
is unchanged. Only the labels are altered. The Partisans of Peace and
the Stockholm Pledge replace the Oxford Oath, and the Leagues for
Peace and Democracy, Against War and Fascism. The Communists
working in this field do not, of course, limit themselves to organizations
which they initiate. They also infiltrate-and with very considerable
success-the already existing pacifist organizations which have a non–
Communist origin and backing: for example, the anti-war committees
of the Society of Friends, and the War Resisters' groups. The Commu–
nist achievement in placing the Soviet agent, Alger Hiss, in the Secre–
taryship of the United Nations Founding Congress, and later at the
head of the Carnegie Peace Foundation, was a remarkable evidence of
their skill in these matters.
The Communist movement of the Partisans of Peace has been so
openly an instrument of Soviet imperialism, and so brazen in its mockery
of genuine pacifist feeling, that it is not proving greatly attractive to
non-Communists. Few intellectuals, except for actual Party members
