VAD IM BELOTSERKOVSKY
261
their violent criticism of Western democracy and democracy in
general, and of progress and humanism , their criticism of " ob–
sequiousness " to the West , their strongly nationalistic trend , and
their exaggeration of external military threats . And, as Mikhail
Mikhailov has remarked in his " Timely Thoughts ,"
no less
dangerous is the temptation they represent
to
compromise with
totalitarianism in respect to authoritarianism . Such a compromise
would render meaningless all the past sacrifices and struggles to
democratize the Soviet Union .
2
Apart from everything else, I think that Solzhenitsyn ' s proposals
suggest the most unrealistic course ,
z/ his aim is stzll to prevent a
.
'physical'
,
revolution.
For the Soviet leaders to renounce Marxist ideology today would
be like officers abandoning their oath of allegiance and deserting
their flag in order to placate the rank-and-file who had been roused
by a brutal barracks regime or a senseless war. A revolt would then be
unavoidable .
Too many things have been done under the banner of Marxism–
Leninism , too many sacrifices made, to renounce this banner suddenly
and admit that over half a century of national history has been a mis–
take! Half a century , packed with events, that is equal to the five previ–
ous centuries (a fact disregarded by many who talk about traditions)!
Let us not forget that Russia today is a country whose level of general
education is among the highest in the world! Such a step would be
taken as a total self-unmasking of the leaders , as an admission that
they do not have and never have had anything but a mere thirst for
power. It would be regarded as a panic action and a world-wide ,
infamous disgrace: to have made a fool of a great nation for more
than half a century! And people would certainly refuse to believe that
renouncing the old ideology could turn wolves into lambs , careerists
into altruists, and bureaucrats into humanists ; that a gigantic
country's centralized economy , unthinkable without a huge bureauc–
racy , could become efficient and profitable; or that KGB-men would
be content to watch street traffic , to prevent pedestrians from being
2The au!hor of !he pres<", anicie has also published a cri!ical review of Solzheni!syn's 1<((" in
Novae
,uIJkoulovo
(New York) . April IO!h andJ une IS!h.
1974 .
