232
JOHN STRACHEY
the workers were fighting upon the other side and had to
be
trampled
under the tank tracks of several Soviet armored divisions was a mere
appearance, unconnected with the essence of things. For the word
"really" has come to mean its opposite, namely "ideally," in the
philosophical, metaphysical or transcendental sense. Such are the uses
of philosophy.*
We unphilosophic British can only reflect upon how much
better, safer and longer-lived this world might be if only communists,
Russians as well as Chinese, would take seriously the words of Engels
in his maturity. For Engels at the end of his life had begun to mean
them seriously himself. He had noticed that the world was a different
sort of place from what it had been in 1848. True, he was still, on
the whole, a revolutionary because he correctly foresaw that the
European powers were driving or drifting towards internecine war,
and might well therefore present the workers with both the necessity
and the opportunity of a violent seizure of power. But he had come
to see that general war was likely to prove the one remaining
revolutionary occasion. Moreover, and in spite of this, Engels was
quite clear that it was highly advantageous for the European workers
to postpone war indefinitely if possible, for the power to influence
society by democratic means was steadily gaining and must, if un–
interrupted by war and revolution, become in the end predominant.
In any event one of the main impressions which the Sino-Russian
controversy must make upon the Western observer is that it is
im–
possible to deny that the Russians have in fact revised their views on
war and aggression. It is fully open to them to point out that they
have only done so because the "objective circumstances" of the world
situation have dramatically changed. Indeed it is just for their failure
to adapt their attitudes to objective changes which stare them
in
the
face that we must blame the Chinese. But revise their attitudes the
Russians undoubtedly have.
If
they had not, there could not
be
any
such thing as the Sino-Russian dispute.
On the other hand the existence of the dispute must continually
*
For instance: "Trained by the Communist Party, the armed forces of the
USSR live up to their international duty. This was demonstrated
by
the aid they
gave to the working people of Hungary .. ." (Col. G. Federor writing in
Krasnaia Zvu.da,
March 22nd, 1957. Quoted in
The Soviet Design for a World
State.)
