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PARTISAN REVIEW
The Soviet leaders, in calling for peace, undoubtedly have
in mind only the peoples of the capitalist countries. But if, in
fighting for peace, we can help people to realize the true reasons
for world tension and thus to stave off a cataclysm, then peace on
earth will truly be preserved and secured.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: Thank you. Our next speaker is Vlad–
imir Voinovich.
VLADIMIR VOINOVICH: We all curse Marxism. But I will
speak of it not as a doctrine, but as a fashion. Have you heard the
anecdote about the Armenian radio: "What is Marxism? Is it a
science, or not?" The answer to this question: "No, because if it
were a science, they would test it out on dogs first. "
Now the Soviet social system looks even more strange than
in the past. Two hundred million people are building an edifice,
but not one of the builders of this edifice-from managers to lab–
orers-believes in the feasibility of successfully completing its
construction.
It is said that Communism has many supporters in the West.
But I think that it has gone out of fashion all the same. Fashion
spreads in the following way: it is born in some center, grows, and
then goes to the provinces. In the center they have already for–
gotten about it. And here the center is the Soviet Union, where
Communism has gone completely out of fashion. In the West
European countries, in America probably to a lesser extent, it still
hasn't gone out of fashion, and somewhere in Africa it's just com–
ing in. I knew a sailor who went to Italy, bought shoes for 1,000
lira which had gone out of fashion ten years ago, and then sold
them in the provinces, in the Ukraine, for 50 roubles each. So I
think that when something has gone out of fashion, it finally
comes to naught, and no matter how terrible Marxism might
appear to us, it must eventually disappear-in the West as well.
But we have no guarantee that it will not be followed by some
new fashion, some new insane idea that will attract millions of
followers.
There is a writer in Moscow whom I have known for twenty
years. When we first became acquainted, he was still a rather
young romantic type who had just become disillusioned with
Stalin and had returned to Lenin. He had a framed picture of
Lenin on his desk, a portrait of Mayakovsky on the wall, and a bust
of his beloved hero Marat on a pedestal. My friend considered me
