ENRIQUE KRAUZE
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all, it was already in the eighteenth century that slavery was offi–
cially abolished in Russia. In the 1860s serfdom was abolished.
Bolshevism restored both under different names. Nevertheless, in
Russian history there have always been various conflicting cur–
rents, and the victory of Bolshevism can be seen as an anti-Western
reaction . However, it is a society which curiously mixes up unity
with disintegration. The society is unified in the sense that there is
one center of power in all areas of life, one center which is sup–
posed to have the monopolistic right to make all judgements and
make all decisions; at the same time society is in a state of disinte–
gration because civil society has been almost utterly destroyed.
No forms of social organization, no crystallizations of social life
are possible unless ordered by the state, so that each individual
faces the omnipotent state as a separate and helpless person, and
the state does everything to encourage this disintegration. People
are supposed to live in a perfect unity as expressed by the leaders;
at the same time they are supposed to hate each other in real life:
they are encouraged to spy upon and denounce each other. Their
unity can be realized only in form of a despotic state apparatus.
Otherwise, all forms of social life are destined to destruction. To
be sure, this destruction has never been absolutely carried out.
Perhaps in Maoist China it went even further than in the Soviet
Union: a great effort was made to destroy the family. The family
is a kind of social structure which resists state ownership; in China
they perceived that and tried to destroy it. They did it in Russia as
well, but less consistently. This system is much less self-confident
now than it used to be; its totalitarian principle doesn't work as
efficiently as in Stalin's days. Nevertheless, its natural tendency is
still the same: to destroy all forms of social life which are not im–
posed by the state.
EK:
But what are the potential sources or sparks of resistance? Re–
ligion, family, national identities, humor perhaps?
LK:
Well, these sources of resistance vary from one country to an–
other. In Poland, as you know, national and religious identity are
working very strongly against totalitarian power. In Soviet Russia
there are many factors contributing to the decomposition of totali–
tarian power which seems to be intact and omnipotent, but in fact
is not. The system is torn asunder by social, economic, and cul–
tural contradictions and conflicts with which it cannot cope. It can
only prevent the conflicts from being openly expressed but cannot
remove the sources. It is likely that these sources of conflict will
