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PARTISAN REVIEW
is always connected with a plot to seize power. Our present govern–
ment, the whole Soviet regime, came from the underground. They're
the rats.
If
an underground organization is created which can over–
throw this regime, then they'll be worse. I wanted to show in my
book that I too served these rats, and I don't want others to end up
the same way. Conspirators never look for those who are right and
wrong among them, conspirators look for total unity. All those not
in agreement are destroyed in the underground, and then others not
in agreement come to the surface.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: Which of the panelists wants to continue
the discussion of the future of the Soviet Union before we turn the
discussion to the floor?
VALERY CHALIDZE: Ladies and gentlemen, I can't predict the
future of Russia, but in my expectations and hopes I am in complete
agreement with Etkind. I hope for democratization. I, of course,
don't think that it will come about in the next ten years- it's a ques–
tion of decades and possibly several generations. And it's possible
that we'll see even more terrible zigzags, which under this type of
regime is possible. But I would like to clarify one thing. When we
began to speak out in defense of human rights, many people in Rus–
sia, including intelligent and sober-minded people, criticized us for
the fact that we did not set up any political program. For many our
declarations, statements, and references to laws and to rights were a
game of words. Right now in many respects the situation is the same.
We have many critics within the country. Recently the French jour–
nal
Alternatives
conducted a series of interviews with anonymous au–
thors in Russia. It's a most interesting document, and contains very
skeptical opinions about human rights activists.
In just the same way, many in the West have said to me and
my colleagues that, without a political program our movement is not
vital and has no special significance. I think the following explanation
should be made. From the practical side, our movement wouldn't
exist if, from the very first, it had had political, firmly expressed
goals - first and foremost because we would never have reached an
understanding among ourselves. But there is another strategic - and
decisive- consideration. We really were not aiming to establish an–
other political system in the Soviet Union, or to achieve power in the
Soviet Union, or to alter the existing system. We criticized this sys–
tem, criticized the conduct of the government. But the main role of
the civil rights movement - and this continues to be so - is to create
