614
PARTISAN REVIEW
from penetration by overly cynical old
apparatchiks
or nationalist fascists
in various forms of disguise. Everything - an individual's intellect, experi–
ences, former activities - must be taken into account in the complex
business of selecting cadres, but in my opinion the first priority, under the
current circumstances, must be given to moral standards. Politics in any
country is not an immaculate business. Russia, after seventy-four years
under the most immoral power ever, certainly has to take into account
its own dramatic shortage of morality. For there really is a moral differ–
ence between Boris Yeltsin's having jumped off the Communist band–
wagon and Leonid Kravchuk's having done so later. Under these cir–
cumstances, I believe, the people should openly discuss moral standards,
honesty and dishonesty, the old, good values which this or that individ–
ual managed to preserve or managed to betray. It will still take the
younger generation a long time to replace those who were, on this or
that level, involved in the secret KGB cobweb of informants or in the
disinformation service. Distinctions among the extent of individuals' in–
volvement in the past will have to be made. Some people in Russia ap–
peal for a total general repentance and purging; others say that this
would be a most horrible disaster that would split the nation into ever–
feuding camps. Some prudently keep silent on the matter.
Yet somehow or other, those former professional agents of disin–
formation, like Georgi Arbatov or Vladimir Posner, do seem ridiculous
wearing the togas of the new democrats, publishing their books of
memoirs in the United States.
In
a country with a free press - and I
daresay the Russian press today is probably the freest in the world - ev–
erything will be gradually discovered, everything will finally be said. This
process is already underway. Day in and day out, we discover more and
more shameful facts, either about high priests of the Orthodox church,
or about literary personalities who worked abroad under "the KGB ori–
entation." Wouldn't it be more productive for the majority of them to
repent and reevaluate their lives without waiting to be exposed? I have a
certain respect for those big shots of the past who found the courage to
give up and who have adjusted themselves to the rapidly changing
conditions.
Lately, I came across a story of a former Commander-in- Chief of the
Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Khronopula. Forced to resign after last Au–
gust's
coup d'etat,
he managed not to plunge into depression, but started
brewing beer in his native Sevastopol. No doubt he told himself: "There
is an opinion, comrades, that the brewery production must be increased!"
Thinking about Admiral Khronopula, a Greek by origin, led me to my
shelf of Harvard Classics, where I opened a volume at random to
