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PARTISAN REVIEW
intelligentsia in the Soviet-ruled countries. But this no more con–
tradicts the principle of hunger than the full stomachs of the slave
owners and supervisors contradict the hunger of the slaves. The
Soviet system even sees to it that its slave supervisors and other as–
sistants are never so satisfied with their standard of living that they
become insolent. Anyone familiar with the sponsorship of the in–
telligentsia in the Soviet Union and the Soviet Zone knows that care
has been taken so that the trees shall not grow up to heaven. Dis–
regarding the stratum of those to whom the ruling caste must grant
a relatively high standard of living in order to achieve its economic
and political goals-a stratum extraordinarily thin in proportion to
the total intelligentsia-even Soviet generals, scientists, and famous
engineers have the size of their feedbags reduced the very moment
the luxurious life disagrees with them. According to the views of the
Politburo, living well is a temptation which, in general, has cor–
rupting effects on political attitudes; only the ideologically secure
and mature can take it in their stride. In case of softening, no
position, however high, offers protection from the labor camps. It is
well known in the Soviet Union that until now only the members
of the Politburo have reached the high level of ideological maturity
which is designated as "Communist consciousness"; it implies the
requisite self-control and permits the men in the Kremlin to live
"each according to his needs," in anticipation of Communism.
The students of the Antifa Academy were the most favored
class of prisoners of war. Our lot was better than that of millions,
but our hunger was always just barely appeased; though we lived
incomparably better than in prison, we were never allowed to eat
our fill. The Soviet and German instructors gave us the same ex–
planation that I received from an NKVD commissar who had
interrogated me in prison, "It is the fault of the war, the product
of Hitler's fascism, which in turn is the result of imperialism. It is
the fault of the capitalists. Are you full of hate because you are
hungry? You are right. But hate those who are really responsible,
for your hunger, for the war, and for all the misfortune in the
world-the capitalists, the ruling class."
An easy trick to see through? No, because it is theoretically
founded on the economic doctrines of Marx and Lenin, on Lenin's
analysis of imperialism and the origins of economic crises and war.
