VADIM BELOTSERKOVSKY
39
In the second version of his
Letter to the Soviet Leaders,
intended
for the West , Solzhenitsyn writes that he can be convinced of the
fallaciousness of his proposals not by clever criticism but only by a
proposal "for a better and more realistic solution laying out a clear
course ."
It
seems to me, however, that Solzhenitsyn's appeal for a
discussion is inappropriate by its very nature. He cannot help knowing
that there is not and cannot be any "clear course" for the liquidation
of the existing regime in the USSR. There is only that course which
Solzhenitsyn himself has followed up
to
now: the course of protest and
education by word, deed, and example . In following that course, one
must not be overcome by despair! One has to recognize the possibility
that our generation may not live to see success. When and how this
education will bear fruit, only God knows.
It
would be a good thing if
this came about along the lines of the Czech "spring" of 1968. But
there is no realistic possibility that the evolution of the regime will be
smooth, and, even less, that it will be spontaneous, without mass
struggle-as Solzhenitsyn would like to have it. Only a genuine
outburst of public rage could force the leaders-out of fear now not for
their power but for their very lives-to permit a Soviet Dubcek or
Gierek to take power and embark on a course of real reform. This
might be termed the "semi-revolutionary course."
And if the leadership had accepted Solzhenitsyn's proposals, the
actual result would have been the temporary strengthening of the
regime-so that life in Russia would have become even more
unendurable. The decrepit, cracked existing ideology lets people take
in an occasional breath of air . But a fresh new ideology of Russian
Onhodox Nationalism might choke us
to
death. Only in one respect
would Solzhenitsyn have guessed correctly: the North-East would
really be opened up faster by the forces of a rapidly proliferating Gulag
Archipelago. Such a development is possible, particularly in case of a
real crisis. For a long time now, the authorities have been preparing
little drawbridges to the territory of the Black Hundreds.
1
That is why
they incessantly nurture anti-Semitism, and keep alive those illegal
fascist groups such as the one which publishes the samizdat journal
Veche
and who regard the "international Kike-Freemason con–
spiracy" as Russia's main enemy. That is why they permit the legal
1Ultra.narionalisr armt d groups in prt-Rtvolurionary Russi. which carrit d our pogroms ofJ t wSand assassin.–
rions of libtral ptrson. lirits .
