498
PARTISAN REVIEW
if war is ruled out as an instrument of liberation, one cannot so
easily rule out the possibility of liberation by revolution. Those who,
like Mr. George Kennan, proclaimed that "There is a finality, for
better or for worse, about what has now occurred in Eastern Eu–
rope"-and proclaimed this
before
Poznan,
before
the Polish October
and the Hungarian November-were much too hasty in their judg–
ment of finality. And unfortunately such a judgment itself had an
enormous influence on the response to these events.
I am among those who believe that at the time of the Hun–
garian revolution a firm and direct intervention by the United Na–
tions and the West in response to the appeal of the Nagy govern–
ment would probably have led to the withdrawal of Soviet troops.
The Kremlin will not be slow, we can be sure, to learn the lesson
of Hungary. It is now clear that it will use force sufficient to sup–
press any popular revolt against a Soviet puppet regime, and that
mere declarations of disapproval by the West will not keep the Rus–
sian tanks from moving in. A revolution under such circumstances
can achieve heroism, martyrdom, but not victory. In the modern
technological age, a practically unarmed nation cannot, without help
from outside allies, stand against the massed might of tanks and
other armor.
The only realistic perspective in the next historical period–
short of a revolution or civil war within the Soviet Union itself-is,
it seems to me, liberation by evolution. I mean by this the gradual
transformation, within the ideological tradition of Marxism-Leninism,
of the totalitarian system of Communism in satellite countries into a
libertarian culture in which the strategic political and cultural free–
doms of an open society are legally recognized and
in fact
realized.
I make no prediction that such a transformation will actually
occur or when it will occur. That depends upon many fadtors out–
side the scope of this discussion. I assume only that such a transfor–
mation is desirable. I shall raise the question of whether such a
transformation is possible; and, if possible, how, and especially which
elements in the traditional Marxist ideology as well as in the current
Communist theory and practice lend themselves to this development.
Of course, the ideology of Marxism and Leninism cannot so
simply be assimilated to the ideal of human freedom. Yet anyone
