50
PARTISAN REVIEW
troubles factory people very littl e. In brief, I do not see the factory
milieu as a serious basis for Russian nationalism, but on the contrary,
as a formidabl e obstacle to it.
The service sector is another matter. Under Soviet conditions this
group is more alienated and demoralized than it has ever been any–
where. By "Soviet conditions" I mean not only totalitarianism, which
deprives people of any possibility of unity (the engineers and workers
are unified by the nature of their work), but state capitalism, under
which the service and commerce sector is in the most dreadful position
materially and morally. Here one finds the necessity for universal
thievery in order to live, the most difficult working conditions, a lack
of respect for service (in a country where "all work is honorabl e"), and
much else besides. Privileged clients, the majority of whom are moral
lackeys, have a demoralizing influence too. What could be worse than
playing the lackey to lackeys! The service sector is also very ill
educated. As a result, most of these people are'simultaneously down–
trodden and aggressive. Violent prej udices of all sorts are widespread:
toward non-Russians and foreigners, intellectuals and students, motor–
ists and tourists, and toward each other. The irritation caused by a
difficult life spreads in all directions, and misanthropy develops. The
nostalgia for a strong Stalinist authority is widespread in the service
sector, where many people see it as a protection against the arbitrari–
ness of their local petty tyrants.
Thus the existence of this sector makes Russian nationalism a
cause for special anxiety. It is here that the movement could find fertile
ground for new growth among the masses, although only if the
authorities are interested in having that happen. By itself, this sector is
so alienated and demoralized that it is utterly incapable of any
independent action except hooliganism and thievery.
But why, how, and in what milieu
did
the Russian nationalist
opposition emerge if, as would seem to be the case, it had no real cause?
In fact there was a strong contraindication to its development, for
official Great Russian nationalism ought to have evoked (and has for
the majority) the opposite reaction for everyone antagonistic to the
regime.
We find one indication of cause in the dates of the movemem, the
fact that it emerged at the beginning of the sixties and reached its
greatest flowering after 1968. The early sixties saw the collapse of
illusions that the regime might be liberalized [rom above, while the
period after 1968, when Soviet tanks invaded Prague, was a time of
despair for all thinking people. This was also a time of harsh persecu-
