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nature of the Congress, accepted their role in it without regret, and
rejected any more ominous interpretation of these events, described
by Malraux as an "impassioned confusion." Yet one wonders if
Salvemini, the writer present who had suffered most for his opposi–
tion to fascism, would have been allowed to deliver his text had he
not been a friend of Gide's. The machinery devoured Nezval,
Breton, and Brecht, and kept the Serge affair almost out of sight.
The two communist publications
(Commune; Le Monde)
purporting to
give a full account of the proceedings and to reproduce the important
speeches gave only a few slanted lines to Benda, Breton, Salvemini,
and Paz. The texts of the last three were too honest and too defiant
of the reigning Stalinist ideology to appear anywhere except in a
small left-opposition monthly called
Les Humbles.
Several sponsors in
retrospect attributed the success of the Congress to the genius of
Willi Miinzenberg, a wealthy and powerful member of the Central
Committee of the German Communist Party. He lived in France
and was skilled in popular front tactics. He probably played a role
behind the scenes, but the strains and stresses go far deeper. In
Gombrowicz's crazily apt theater piece,
Operetta,
the militant revolu–
tionary is carried into battle and on to total power on the shoulders
of a willing- and obsessively vomiting- professor.
Outwardly the consequences of the Congress were pedestrian.
A final declaration was adopted, an international association formed,
and an executive committee with national committees appointed–
all by the organizing committee, without vote or discussion. Written
or at least carefully edited by Gide himself, the declaration made no
waves.
It
asked for more translations, more travel opportunities for
writers, and an international literary prize. It declared that the ex–
ecutive committee was prepared "to fight on its own ground, namely
for culture, against war, fascism, and generally against every
menace to civilization." A few days after the close of the Congress,
Gide wrote the Soviet Ambassador about Victor Serge and followed
through with a formal visit to the Embassy. Serge was finally re–
leased in 1936, thanks not to the discussions at the Congress or to
Gide's appeal, but (Serge writes in his memoirs) to Romain Rolland's
personal intervention with Stalin. A second Congress was held in
Spain in the summer of 1936. Given the situation, not much could
come of it. At least it provided the occasion for Malraux to meet
Hemingway; they divided up the Spanish war for their private novel–
writing contest.
The real effects of the Congress lie elsewhere.
It
was perfectly
