VADIM BELOTSERKOVSKY
271
This state of affairs, long familiar to specialists, is now being
recognized even by the Soviet leaders . In his last address during the
electoral campaign Brezhnev said: "Our national economy , whose
development rate exceeds the rate at which labor resources grow,
already demands maximum economy in the use of labor." In the
future this demand will become
still more acute .
" It is , therefore,
imperative ," Brezhnev concluded, "to effect a shift to intensive
methods of economic development. " His statement also admits that
so far such a shift has not been achieved, "despite all efforts by the
Party and Government . " And, it would seem, it cannot be achieved
without radical reforms, and at the price of large-scale concession–
building (now timidly begun by Brezhnev) and modernization of
industries with the aid of foreign capital, followed by a transition to
their joint exploitation, that is, at the price of colonialism. The cheap
labor of Soviet engineers and workers, who at the same time are more
qualified than those of the developing countries, may prove
advantageous for foreign concerns. (American trade-union leader
George Meany has already stated that Americans do not want to see
their country flooded with cheap goods, produced by the "slave–
labor ofRussian workers.' ') This may lead to an open conflict with the
current ideology , and face the country with a choice between a demo–
cratic revolution and the authoritarian one. In such a crisis, frightened
Party functionaries might stage a semi-fictitious court revolution,
exchanging" Marxism" for an openly chauvinistic-clerical ideology,
for which they might find Solzhenitsyn's ideas useful.
However , I believe such a course would lead to revolution. But
in this case it might involve even greater bloodshed , as the authorities
might be supported by the service groups (those engaged in goods
distribution, handicrafts, the hotel and restaurant trade, repairs,
etc.), which tend towards chauvinism and, moreover, are likely to
benefit from the concessions granted to foreign firms.
For a great and civilized nation all roads eventually lead to
democracy, democracy based on socialist ideals, modified, of course,
by historical experience. As I see it, they will be realized through a
synthesis of capitalism and socialism, along the lines of recent trends
in Eastern Europe.
4
But the costs will depend upon which road is
taken.
4 I have oudined my views on such a synthesis in the book
Romya i mir- po kakomu pUli?
(Russia and
the World- Which Path ').
