CENTRAL EUROPEAN WRITERS
AS A SOCIAL FORCE
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the air was healthier. The present period in Soviet history, he said, was
unhealthy; he himself would have preferred to live forty years later.
Rolland either did not understand or pretended not to understand.
Many of the things Rolland disliked in fascist Italy he enjoyed in
Moscow - the feeling of purpose, the youthful idealism, the parades,
even the cultural conformism. Above all, he was impressed by Stalin, his
"absolute simplicity, straightforwardness and truthfulness." Stalin admitted
to him that the execution of some hundred people after Kirov's murder
had been precipitous and a political mistake but rationalized that it had
been necessary as a deterrent. Stalin told him that it was a dirty business
and much better not to get involved. But, he continued, once one had
decided to liberate the exploited, one did not have the right to opt out.
Stalin explained that the Soviet leaders had to take not only world
opinion into account but also the domestic situation. Many Russians
were very angry that he, Stalin, had spared the lives of people such as
Zinoviev and Kamenev. (The interview took place after their first trial.)
Did Rolland know that there had been a conspiracy of young women of
aristocratic background who aimed to poison the whole Soviet lead–
ership? One young lady librarian had attempted to poison Stalin.
Rolland asked about the introduction of capital punishment for mi–
nors from the age of twelve. Stalin answered that such a measure could
not be understood by the West. He muttered something about yet an–
other conspiracy and concluded that Rolland should rest assured that
death sentences would be passed only in very rare cases. Rolland wrote in
his diary: "When I heard about these horrible crimes committed by
women and children, I understood that we in the West tend to forget
these realities. The Bolsheviks still have to fight for a long time against
the cruel, barbaric old Russia."
For every negative feature, Rolland found an excuse or at least some
mitigating circumstances. And yet, one has a sense of underlying uneasi–
ness, a lack of enthusiasm. Rolland disliked some of the movies he
watched; he disliked the Moscow weather; and he regretted that Es–
peranto had been banned in the Soviet Union. He fought hard for the
release of Victor Serge - a French-Russian oppositionist who had been in
a Soviet prison for years. He explained to Stalin and Yagoda that he had
no sympathies for Serge's views, but that they shou ld realize Serge's
continued detention was grist for the anti-Soviet mills in the West. Serge
was released the following year, no doubt due to Rolland's intervention.
Rereading his diary after his return from Moscow, Rolland concluded
that he had been perhaps too critical and written with too much haste.
In retrospect, the negative aspects of the Soviet regime were outweighed
