10
PARTISAN REVIEW
the left. It was a legal question, not a political one, and certainly not a
cause.
In fact, the confusion of these problems came from an identifica–
tion of Russian national interests with socialist ideals, and this confusion
has been one of the main reasons why American radical politics has
oscillated between a doctrinaire orthodoxy and a mindless populism,
between the futility of sectarianism and the impotence of respectability.
The very distinction between Communists and anti-Communists is itself
a trap and not a solution, and to perpetuate this polarization is to suggest
that no other position is possible -- which, unfortunately, may be the
case.
W.P.
THE FREEZE
The official campaigns now being conducted in Hungary and
Yugoslavia against critkal socialist thinkers remind us (if a reminder is
needed) that the repressive potential of one-party regimes remains very
large. And, ironically, the Hungarian and Yugoslav regimes have used a
period of
detente
to narrow the limits of freedom. But both governments
must know that authentic and lasting
detente
with the West depends not
only on good relations with Messrs. Nixon and Kissinger, but on public
opinion.
In Hungary, an ideological attack on a group of scholars associated
with the late Gyorgy Lukacs was followed by administrative measures
which deprived them of their academic posts and of the right to travel or
to ·publish. The group includes Gyorgy Bence, Andras Hegedus, Agnes
Heller, Janos Kis, Gyorgy Markus, Maria Markus, Mihaly Vajda, though
Hegedus and Heller, because of their prominence, were singled out for
special attention. Hegedus, prime minister at the outbreak of the 1956
revolution, withdrew from active politics, rethought his position, and
subsequently made his international reputation as a critic of bureaucratic
socialism. Agnes Heller, who has tried to construct a philosophical
foundation for a libertarian socialism, has been published in France,
England, and Germany. The persecution of this group suggests that the
Hungarian regime will never tolerate thinkers who transcend the
(changing) limits prescribed by the party. The irony is that the Hungar–
ian regime is nullifying Hungary's contribution to Marxism.
The Yugoslav case is more surprising
~-
particularly since Presi–
dent Tito condemned the Stalinist counterrevolution. in Hungary in
1956. Until recently Yugoslavia was held to be the exemplary society:
Marxist socialism and a considerable measure of freedom appeared com–
patible. But possibly this impression rested on an illusion, which might
indicate that the Yugoslav road to socialism could, like so many others,
lead to neo-Stalinism.
In any event, in recent months the campaign of state and party
officials against the internationally known Praxis group of philosophers
