THE
CRISIS IN COMMUNISM
83
the supreme duty of writers consisted in spreading the myth of the
regime's popularity and the Party's phantom successes. "We have paid
dearly for our lies: we saw our productivity falter, the level of our
work sink, while drifting farther and farther away from the philosophic
foundations of our literary existence: Marxism-Leninism.
"I have been a Marxist for nearly forty years," Hay cried '"out
to the Congress. "Marxist philosophy was the basis of my thought, the
guiding force of my life. But in these years, the psychic tortures of the
recent past have taught me that no philosophy, however just, can be
relied on as an
automatic
safeguard against errors, aberrations, and
even against crime and dishonor. Like everyone else, the Marxist too
must carry on, day after day, his struggle for the truth."
In this stirring confession and avowal, the word "truth" appeared
as the great rallying cry of insurgent Hungarian writers, taking on an
exalted, almost mystical tone. But let there be no mistake.
It
signified
for the best of them a real effort at demystification, at emancipation
from propaganda. It marked the point of junction of a thinking elite
with popular sentiment. Hence, the revolt of the Magyar writers carries
a moral pathos that commands our respect.
Francois Fejto
NIGHT AND DAY IN WARSAW*
Stalinism aimed at transforming literature into journalism
and propaganda, and the fact is that in the course of ·the last months
literature has turned into journalism and propaganda. But it is journal–
ism and propaganda directed against Stalinism. Stalinism aimed at
"politicizing" our youth, and the fact is that our youth has now become
a political force. But it is a political force directed against Stalinism.
Stalinism called on the working class to be alert; the workers have now
become alert in their determination not to permit a return of Stalinism.
What was a fiction has become a reality. Not by one stroke! Stalin–
ism-as Wiktor Woroszylski wrote correctly-was violence done to econ–
omy, and to human thoughts and feelings; but Stalinism was also
violence done to words. It called black white, and white black.. It con-
*
This article, printed here for its documentary interest, as indicative of the
new tone in the Polish press, appeared in
Przeglad Kulturalny
("Cultural Re–
view"), Warsaw, October 25-31, 1956. The author is one of Poland's leading
literary critics.-THE
EDITORS.
