28
PARTISAN REVIEW
on the political and artistic consciousness of those living in Russia.
On the whole I would not say, speaking only for myself, that my
main creative impulse comes from the feeling of civic duty . But I am
convinced that each of us is doing a noble deed.
If
Russia revives as
a democratic state, we can boldly gather together, drink about three
liters of vodka, and say that we also have contributed to this revival.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: A famous person who is in opposition to the
Soviet regime has just come in, General Grigorenko. I would like to
invite him to join us to later answer questions or make any statement
he wishes.
We had planned to emphasize questions about literature and
culture in this session, and that happens to coincide with the re–
quests that many of you have made.
If
time permits, we may return
to some political questions, because some people have indicated that
we didn't exhaust those and they weren't satisfied with the answers.
Before we begin our formal questioning, I have an insistent
note which says, "Many of us think we heard Mr. Dovlatov endorse
the use of any means, including the ultimate ones, to destroy the
present regime. Mr. Dovlatov says that he is opposed to nuclear
warfare and did not say what most of the audience heard."
SERGEI DOVLATOV: There has been some misunderstanding. I
was talking about the tendency to consider any means admissible in
the battle against Communism as extremely dangerous. I spoke of
unscrupulousness, which hides behind the old idea that the endjusti–
fies the means, which results in a bond between the end and the
means. I also said, which for some reason aroused the indignation of
my friend Aleshkovsky, that if a survey were to be taken of emigrants,
and by this I mean not the dissidents sitting here in the auditorium,
but the ordinary public, that some of them would speak out for the
use of military means against the Soviet state, which would lead to
monstrous consequences. I am not capable or prepared to give an
evaluation of the foreign policy of the United States or any other
state - but, in the most general sense, I can say that I think the most
judicious policy is one that is supported by a constitutional statute
and is realizable by taking into account to the greatest possible ex–
tent the expressed opinion of the majority of competent individuals.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: Thank you. I'm pleased to announce that
we are being joined by Mr. Valery Chalidze, the Russian writer and
editor, and by Mr. Mihajlo Mihajlov, the Yugoslav writer.
We will begin by asking the dissidents which contemporary
