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PARTISAN REVIEW
do this to Poland . Poland is the only country in the socialist camp
where this hasn't been done , which has managed to preserve its na–
tional structure. If they succeed in imprisoning or exiling four thou–
sand or four hundred thousand people there, Poland will become a
Soviet nation. But for now we must defend it , because our salvation
is the salvation of the West, even if only the West remains demo–
cratic. But if freedom perishes here too, then it's all over for us.
ABRAHAM BRUMBERG: I did want to say something before
about the use of the word "dissident," which , frankly, began to trou–
ble me as the conference went on. We've had mainly two categories
of people who have spoken to us for the last two or three days. There
is one category of writers , people who are in the area of
belles lettres
who write books, poems, essays. We've heard from Siniavski , from
Voinovich, and others. Then there's another category of people who
were engaged in certain political activities in the larger sense of the
word; and I would put, of course, Pavel Litvinov in this category .
Now, when we speak of dissidence we speak of activity in which they
engaged while they were in the Soviet Union. What made them dis–
sidents was their resolution to say no to the rule of the lie; to say no
to the rule of what might be called the new class. What made them
dissidents was - whatever their political program - a certain political
stance they took . Now that they are amongst us, I don't think we
should look at them as dissidents, but as representatives of the demo–
cratic movement in the Soviet Union. Dissident is far too restrictive
a term. And as far as the writers are concerned, I think both those
here and their colleagues in Russia represent Russian literature and
not dissidence . They were Russian writers when they published
their work there, and they did not cease to be Russian writers when
they came to this country .
WILLIAM PHILLIPS: Thank you. I'm sure you are aware that the
use of the term
dissidence
has an historic origin, and that it is used
here for the sake of convenience. There is a good book by Shragin,
which describes the origin, the meaning, and the currency of the
term
dissidence.
WOMAN FROM THE AUDIENCE: I would like to ask Mr.
Kohak what will cause the Soviet empire to perish?
ERAZIM KOHAK: Empires throughout history are like bicycles :
they manage to keep their balance only as they are moving forward .
What I have seen since the occupation of my country and all through
the occupied portions of Europe , is that its system is no longer a dy-
