THE LlTERARY IMPACT
613
OF THE AMERICAN AND FIUNCH REVOLUTIONS
down, saying that I simply couldn't accept the honor, since I was not an
atheist. "You're not who?" asked the person of consequence who
wanted to give me this promotion. "Well, isn't scientific atheism one of
the major requirements for entering the Communist Party?" asked
1.
He
looked at me as if I were a lunatic: What is this young fool talking
about?
Somehow or other, we must admit that those who wanted to climb
the ladder of success, that most active segment of the population of the
country known as the Soviet Union, carried the CPSU's membership
cards. Some did it cynically, others simply took it for granted. A handful
of dissidents chal1enged the system openly, but there were millions and
millions of Party members whose souls, year by year, became impregi1ated
with discontent, disappointment, bitterness, and despair. The seeds of this
unique revolution of the presumed rulers against their own rule were
sown and grew in these souls. That's why they so easily, or with a sense
of great relief, parted with their Party membership cards, getting rid of
the ever-poisoning falsity of their lives. Yet how could the nation now
do without al1 those mil1ions, without all those artistic directors, editors,
managers, captains, scientists, scholars, engineers? Their names are legion!
A
new generation, free of the falsity their predecessors were compel1ed to
live with, hasn't yet come of age. Perhaps it is a great blessing for the
nation that people don't want to get even with the
Communist~.
Perhaps the simple fact that the vast majority of the population, formally
or informally, were themselves Communists has saved the great nation
from a bloodthirsty vengeance and has provided this new Russian
revolution with its unique, self-liberating character. It does help that
everyone has a sense of guilt.
On the other hand, we cannot ignore the alarming signals and bitter
sense of dissatisfaction now emanating from the former Soviet Union. It
is being said that the same Communist
apparatchiks
have become more
and more conspicuous in the new democratic regime . Old stooges are
repainting themselves in new colors. They are reconstructing the old,
familiar glossary and phraseology so as to pose as democrats, and at the
same time, they are taking pains to restore the old system of privileges
and the omnipresence of a reconstructed KGB. The sycophants were al–
ways in high demand in Russia, and there certainly was always a good
supply of them. So Yeltsin's government deserves credit for selecting and
establishing those new people in its ranks that it has, and Moscow is still
the indisputable champion of democracy among the other capitals of the
former Soviet Union .
On the other hand, one cannot rule out that even this government,
especially in such areas as diplomacy or the secret services, is not immune
