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PARTISAN REVIEW
anny. What is required above all else is to make these critical spirits,
whether or not anyone of them is a potential Djilas, Kolokowski, or
Ignotus, aware of the fact that their predicaments, their problems,
their struggles and their sufferings are known beyond the borders
of their own countries.
The pace of democratic change in Communist countries cannot
be predicted, but we know that since the false internationalism of the
Soviet Union has been shown to be only an expression of Russian
imperialism, every critic, every dissident, will conceive his struggle for
greater liberalization
in
social and political life as a struggle for na–
tional liberation. In a free Europe, nationalism may be transcended
but only when the legitimate claims of patriotism expressed as piety
for the sources of one's being and tradition, have been recognized.
The Kremlin cannot seriously extend the right to genuine national
self-determination to its satellites without starting a chain reaction
whose consequences will take these countries still further out of the
orbit of Communism.
Given the history of the twentieth century, once a "thaw" sets
in in any aspect of culture in a totalitarian society, it has a tendency
to extend not only into neighboring cultural fields but to take poli–
tical form as well. The chagrin and rage of the Soviet Communist
leaders at the Hungarian and Polish intellectuals is due to their reali–
zation that the heretical cultural ideas of these men will prove in the
long run
politically
infectious. The logic of the situation is such that
every concession made to artists, writers, or scientists carries with it
consequences that call for further concessions, which when denied put
into question the sincerity and genuineness of the first concession. His–
tory often shows that changes are more rapid when things begin to get
a bit better. Despair paralyzes the will to action, especially risky
action; hope inspires it. We can be sure that the slight taste of the
freedoms which the peoples of the satellite countries have been given,
after being deprived of them for almost a decade, will genera,te an
enormous appetite for more-and perhaps this hunger will spread
to the Soviet Union itself.
(Sidney Hook's article continues the series on "The Crisis in
Communism" begun in our pages in
1956.
Other pieces on the sub–
ject will appear in
PR
in the near future.-THE
EDITORS.)
