COMMUNISM NOW
515
The contradictory character of the
subjective,
human and
psychological, factors of de-Stalinization is not less striking. The force
of inertia which keeps alive Stalinist habits of action and thought
must not be underrated even after the check it has received since
the Twentieth Congress. It has certainly not spent itself. A privileged
minority is bound to defend its privileges. A bureaucracy accustomed
to rule in the absolutist manner exerts itself to preserve its preponder–
ance. The labor aristocracy, or a section of it, may not favor
policies which narrow the social gap between that "aristocracy"
and the mass of workers. Yet the resistance of all these groups to the
new policies has so far proved to be weaker, far weaker, than might
have been expected. The worst crucial contradiction lies in the char–
acter of the chief agents of de-Stalinization who are none other
than the former guardians of Stalinist orthodoxy. (How much ink
my critics, especially in the U.S.A., have spiIled to declare me an
"incurable wishful thinker," or even a "Stalinist apologist," when
three years before Khrushchev's secret speech I forecast this paradox–
ical development!)
The paradox is not accidental. De-Stalinization has become a
social necessity; and necessity works through such human material
as it finds available. Had any of the old Bolshevik Oppositions-Trot–
skyist, Zinovievist, and Bukharinist-survived till this day, Messrs.
Khrushchev, Bulganin, Voroshilov and Co. would surely have long
since been removed from power and influence, and anti-Stalinists
would have carried out the de-Stalinization wholeheartedly, con–
sistently, rationally, and with complete frankness. But the old Opposi–
tions have been totally exterminated, and new ones could not form
themselves and grow under Stalin's rule. The job which it should
have been the historic right and privilege of authentic anti-Stalinists
to tackle has thus fallen to the Stalinists themselves, who cannot tackle
it otherwise than halfheartedly and hypocritically. They have to undo
much of their life's work in such a way as not to bring about their
own undoing. Circumstances have forced Malenkov and Khrushchev
to act
up to a point
as the executors of Trotsky'S political testament.
The wonder is not that they act these roles awkardly, badly, and even
monstrously badly, but that they act them at alJ!
