48
PARTISAN REVIEW
not their weapon! That is why so little is known in the West about the
views of the Soviet "coerced ."
At the present time , however, ideas of self-government and group
ownership of the means of production , as the only possible and realistic
alternative to state capitalism , are beginning to spread among the
" coerced ones." A teacher, S. Zorin and an engineer, N. Alekseyev,
for example , write pseudonymously in the . so-called Leningrad
Program (Samizdat) . 'Time Does not Wait ", . 'There is only one way
to expropriate the ruling elite while not re-establishing a boutgeois
class at the same time. That is to curtail the monopoly of the state sector
severely by transferring the largest part of the means of production–
factories, institutes , etc.-to the ownership ofworkers ' collectives. The
management of such collectives must be elective and ownership must
go entirely to the members ."
Some dissidents among the "coerced," it is true, still believe in
the possibility of achieving" true Leninism." Some put their hopes on
a revolution , and others (like Sakharov) believe in an evolutionary
solution . But almost all the dissidents in the latter category are united
in their determination to go
forward
and not backwards or sideways in
their struggle against oppression . They see the continuity of history in
tomorrow succeeding today and yesterday, and not the day before the
day before yesterday. They do not lose their faith in the power of
human reason , are not afraid to seek and experiment and do not limit
freedom of thought and art with the absutd, reactionary notion of
avoiding the entire subject of the strucrure of society, the most
fundamental issue for mankind. Finally , they do not separate Russia's
problems from the problems of the West . As Sakharov says, " We have
the same problems-only OutS have reached an extreme form ."
Similarly, they identify with the struggle of progressive democratic
forces in the West from which they exclude the Communists and the
radical left.
