Vadim Belotserkovsky
LETTER TO THE FUTURE
LEADERS OF THE SOVIET UNION:
An Alternative to Solzhenitsyn's Program
" ot through witty CrltlClSm, but only by proposing a
better and, above all, a wholly realistic way out, with clearly defined
courses of action" -writes Solzhenitsyn
1_"
can one convince him
that his proposals are wrong." He writes this, convinced that his is
the only possible proposal for a peaceful transformation of the Soviet
Union.
I believe he is mistaken . And now, after the publication of the
collection of articles
From beneath the Boulders ,
it is quite clear that
Solzhenitsyn's proposals
to
the Soviet leader are not an attempt
to
find a compromise solution, but rather a complete program with a
definite political theory and with supporters.
There is an earlier letter
to
the Soviet leader hip , which , I think,
outlines a far more realistic road
to
peaceful changes and which is not
reactionary. I have in mind the letter "On a Question of Great
Importance" by Andrei Sakharov, Valerii Turchin , and Roy Med·
vedev.
However , the course and methods suggested by them, and their
analysis of the Soviet sy tern and ociety, leave some gaps which
should be filled in order
to
present a convincing alternative
to
Solzhenitsyn's proposals and views. As Sakharov has correctly pointed
out, these views pose a grave danger because of their " parallelism"–
insofar as they lend support
to
the official Soviet propaganda with
lIn tho profac<
10
tho 5<'cond vorsion of his " utlor
(0
the uadors of tho Sovio( Union." In tho ho.. of
poIrmics on (he ubSlanc< of (his Irtlor no ono has paid a"omion
(0
(ho
elhlcal aspeci
of its s<cond , public
version (which, moreover, carries the same date as the first one thal was sent
to
the Soviet kaders) , nor
(Q
the
nature of
tht:'
changes made .
