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another direction, he ought at least not try to drag others along
with him.
Intellectuals are now heatedly debating the degree to which
the Soviet system departs from Marxism, and whether or not it is
a perversion of Marxism. I believe that any answer to this ques–
tion will be tardy, because humanity is threatened by new ideol–
ogies that are still in the process of formation. We must realize
that the successes of Marxism were not accidental. Marxists took
over slogans developed by many generations of humanists, writ–
ing words such as
freedom, equality, fraternity
on their banners.
People sometimes say that democracy produces destructive
ideas and that we need authoritarianism rather than democracy.
What exactly is authoritarianism? It is rule by the authorities. But
who should be considered an authority, who will name him, and
for how long? Will not such an authority simply appoint himself?
Were not Lenin and Stalin authorities for millions of people?
Many former Soviet citizens are saying, "We have traveled such a
road and undergone such experiences that we can now teach other
people a thing or two. " I cannot agree.
It
seems to me that the
experience of a man who has spent his entire life in prison cannot
teach anything to a man who has lived his entire life in freedom.
We ought not so much attempt to teach others as to learn our–
selves.
Many of us are not indifferent to the fate of the Soviet Union,
the country where we were born and raised. The actions of that
country cannot be a matter of indifference to the rest of the world
either, inasmuch as it is a superpower and its fate is inevitably
intertwined with the fate of the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, many Soviet people, in rejecting Marxism,
Communist slogans, and internationalism, ultimately come to
nationalism. And then they begin to talk, if not about who lives
better, then at least about who lives worse. And just who has suf–
fered the most from the Soviet authorities? The Estonians, the
Latvians, and the Lithuanians, for example, consider their
countries to have been occupied by the Soviet government. The
Ukrainians hate the Muscovites, while those Muscovites main–
tain that it is precisely Russian culture that has suffered more
than any other. As far as I can tell, we've all suffered enough. For
example, the Chechens, the Kalmyks, and the Crimean Tartars
have all suffered enough. Regardless of what the future may hold,
