604
PARTISAN REVIEW
themselves and modern mankind resulting from the seventy-year re–
pression of private, creative initiative.
No, pre-1917-or more accurately, pre-1g14-Russia was no
glacial wasteland. She had a versatile society and a lot of things that ,
lamentably, are no longer to be found. The enormous energy of
tempestuously developing capitalism pulsed through her. The
judicial system that operated in her was advanced not only for its
time, but by today's standards as well. She had a press that was
relatively independent and that was moving toward greater in–
dependence, a limited but still multiparty parliament, a many–
voiced and talented literature led by Dostoevsky, whom many
literary scholars consider "the singer of capitalism," in other words,
the voice of a pluralistic society. Russia had the most extensive
railroad system in the world as well as brave pioneers of aviation.
There were fashionable stores in the big cities and shops brimming
with all sorts of sundries in the provinces and districts. On Nevsky
Prospect you could buy exactly the same goods that London's
Picadilly Circus offered, and even better still, surplus food products
were a major export item. Church-going was in no way considered a
sign of ignorance. From this point of view, I'd sooner sympathize
with Andreyev, leader of the pamyatniks, but with one significant
stipulation: Comrade Andreyev cannot see in the old Russia a
Western-oriented country, a part of advanced Europe . Least of all
can he see the future of that country within the context of Western
civilization .
Losoto describes attending a Pamyat meeting. She exits Kro–
potkinskaya metro station not on the side of the Moscow swimming
pool- an object of Pamyat's hatred regularly referred to at their
meetings as "that round puddle of ablution" - but on the side of the
Lenin regional party committee
(raykom)
of the city of Moscow. . . .
After I got used to the oversignificance and underlying meanings in
this article, I meant to set about finding the proper metaphor or a
hint of Losoto's ideological direction, until suddenly I got a clear
vision of this particular part of the city. I had actually lived there for
no less than three years, and I remembered that I never could stand
that loathsome pool, even without Pamyat. Swimming there was by
no means a pleasant experience as the pool stunk of chlorine, and
the level of sanitation of the lockers left much to be desired. The
Cathedral of Christ the Savior used to stand on this site; it was
mockingly destroyed, and originally there were plans to erect the
