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PARTISAN REVI EW
countries (such as Pola nd). Some la tter-day a n ti-Communists,
notabl y among the neoconse rvatives, equ a te communi st a nd fascist
sympa thi ze rs much too facilely and a utoma ti call y. In the pas t, a nti–
Sta linist lefti sts did not simpl y shun a nd denounce the former : they
sought to a rgue with them , shoved books by T rotsky, Koes tler , or
Orwell a t them , a nd generall y rega rded them as del uded ra ther than
as wicked beyond redemp tion . They did not treat Naz i ympathizers
in the same way - or wouldn't have in the unlikely eve nt of their ever
hav ing met a ny. T he hi story of communi sm in the West, almost
since 19 17 , has been that those ini tia ll y drawn by its procla imed
ideals have eventuall y "had their Kronstadt" a nd a ba ndoned their
illusions, even ve tera n pa rty members long insul ated from reality.
No such peri odic mass defec tions ma rk the hi sto ry o f Naz i a nd
fasc ist movemen ts.
Although Navas ky gives full mora l credit to the idealism that
hi s "res isters" to HUAC cl a im attrac ted them to the C P a nd kept
them loyal to it fo r so long, he refuses to see tha t the blindness a nd
fraudul ence o f thi s ideali sm were precisely wha t indu ced hock and
di sgust on the pa rt o f tho e who aw th rough it. Libera l-left a nti–
Communi sm was rooted in a pro found mora l reaction aga inst both
the crimes o f Sta linism a nd the refusal of its a pologists to
acknowl edge them , a reacti on tha t was usua lly hi ghl y unpopular in
the circles to whi ch le ft a nti -Communi sts continued to belong.
Navas ky's interview with Budd Schulberg, the longes t in the book,
presents a n eloquent a nd pass iona te express ion of thi s outlook.
Schulberg became a Communi st a t a ve ry ea rly age when the Pa rty
was first organi zed in H oll ywood . As a n as piring wri te r , he a ttended
a writers' congress in the Sov iet U nion in the earl y thirtie . After
leav ing the Pa rty a few yea rs later , he found ou t tha t the organi ze r
who had recruited him had been sho t by the Sta linists in Spa in and
that most of the wri te rs he had met , including Ba bel a nd Pilniak,
had d isappea red during the G reat Te r ror. (" I told Lillia n [Hellma n],
'Better writers tha n you or me have bee n kill ed. ' She said , 'Prove
it.' ") Navasky confines himsel f to ex press ing kepticism about the
motives Schul berg says led him to coope rate with HUAC. A
conclusive indicati on of Navas ky's indifference to the moral
indi gna ti on a nima tin g a n ti-Communi sts is hi s readiness to publish
in the j ourna l he edi ts a few eptuagena ri a ns who a re
still
Communi sts a fter a ll these years - a nd as exper ts on Soviet a ffa irs
no less!
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