POINTS AFTER .
..
SOLZHENITSYN. Some great figures become leaders, others become sym–
bols. Solzhenitsyn , for example, has sounded like the leader of a crusade
against the Soviet regime , mobilizing all the forces that are or pretend to be
for the restoration of civil liberties and intellectual freedom in the Soviet
Union; but in the extremity of his position he has come to symbolize the
confusion and the impotence of the opposition to totalitarian rule in Russia.
Most of what Solzhenitsyn says about the Soviet Union and about the
United States is true, and his boldness is refreshing in pointing out that
American foreign policy is being dictated not by considerations of democracy
or even of national interest but rather of immediate ptofits. But, unfortu–
nately, Solzhenitsyn reduces all political questions to a power strugg le
between the West and the East , which is neither sound nor productive. For it
means that in every situation, short of nuclear war, where the issues are
political not military, the odds are in favor of the Russians and the official
Communist parties.
Solzhenitsyn's position is basically that of the conservat ive anti -Com–
munists , whose politics boil down to supporting the status quo-ideologically
and militarily-against both the real and imagined threat of Communism,
even though it has been demonstrated over and over again that it is precisely
disaffection with the corruption and weakness of the status quo that the
Communists exp loit everywhere. And it also has been demonstrated repeat–
edly that on ly a left opposition, one with a vision of a better society, can cope
with the combination of terror and hope that is the unique offering of the
Communists. Unfortunately, however, the left opposition is tiny and power–
less-except , perhaps, in Portugal-and is hemmed in on one side by the
anti-Communists of the right, who further help to confuse the issue by
lumping all left groupings with the Communists, and on the other by the mass
of soft-headed idealists who have been brainwashed into thinking that all
criticism of Russia , China , the Third World politicians, or the Arab dema–
gogues
IS
reactionary.
