VADIM BELOTSERKOVSKY
53
satisfy the demands of the Moloch of heavy industry. This report,
based on convincing figures , demonstrates that this situation cannot be
accounted for, as is done by many, in the over-expansion of the Soviet
military industry. This actually existing over-expansion only contri–
butes to the swelling of heavy industry . And, may I add, it is precisely
the need for new capital and high-grade equipment which is the basic
reason for the country's growing military potential and its imperialistic
inclinations since it explains the necessity of pumping capital out of the
neighboring countries, annexed and held by force of arms.
To be able to coerce and "persuade" people to live and work
under conditions of extreme scarcity, the regime is compeUed to
suppress constantly all democratic rights throughout the country. And
yet Medvedev asserts that' 'the economic growth of all branches of the
economy will continue even under conditions of isolation." He goes
on
to
say, "We see today that more and more of our national
leaders are becoming aware that the Soviet Union cannot be allowed
much longer to lag so far behind the capitalist countries in relation to
the material welfare of the population." But as a historian, Medvedev
should' 'see" that Soviet leaders have been aware of this lag for a very
long time and are nonetheless incapable of doing anything about it .
Technical and economic assistance from the West in itself can at
best only partially and temporarily appease the hunger of the Moloch
of heavy industry; and it would also help to free additional resources
for the further strengthening of the Soviet war potential. Once the
West has adapted its industry to Soviet raw materials moreover-the
only means by which the Soviet Union can pay-a brilliant oppor–
tunity for Soviet blackmail will emerge, similar to the one the Arab
countries are carrying on with oil at the present time.
Assistance from the West could lead to the liberalization of the
Soviet regime only if it could plug up all the gaps in Soviet economic
life completely and continuously and, on top of that, take on itself the
lion's share in supplying a population of 230 million with goods and
produce . Such philanthropy, it would seem to me, is beyond the
economic power of the "decadent West" .
2)
On Medvedev 's theory of the apathy of the people and the
reasons for the hardening of the regime in the USSR.
When Medvedev accounts for the hardening of the regime as a
