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PARTISAN REVIEW
Question:
Within the new structures of the smaller Eastern European
countries, or even in Russia, what role do you predict Jewish citizens will
play? Are there any real dangers for Jews in these economies and new
social structures?
Ivan Klima:
There really are no Jews
1I1
that part of the world, with
the exception of Russia.
Ques tioll:
This question is for Doris Lessing and Slavenka Drakulic. There
has been a notion among feminist intellectuals in this country that there
is or should be some distinctly female sensibility or female ethic that
women writers should express. I wonder if you think there is something
inherently oppressive and dogmatic about that notion .
Doris Lessing:
Is the female sex in some way superior? No, I don't
agree with that. I think there is nothing observable historically to sup–
port the supposition that women are in some way more peace-loving,
gentler, and so on, than men. This is an enormous subject, but I don't
agree with this view. I think, like other idealistic and romantic notions,
it is damaging to women.
Questioll:
I would like to ask something of Slavenka Drakulic or Ivan
Klima. I am Polish and was raised under the Communist regime and
propaganda in Poland. Recently, I traveled to Czechoslovakia and Yu–
goslavia. I found there that the common people were afraid to talk
about the occurring changes. It was like the beginning of the 1980s,
when I asked people in Yugoslavia about Tito and they told me he was
a great guy, just like a father to them. Yet we knew he was a dictator
like Stalin. Was the kind of response I found due to the strength of pro–
paganda or to people's fears?
Ivan Klima:
I would like to add that after the Soviet invasion, most of
the intellectuals who were Communists were removed. They were on
such a low and stupid level that no one believed them. On the other
hand, people were asking for all sorts of books that had been forbidden.
Edith Kurzweil:
One last question .
Question:
In the final analysis, it seems to me, the opposition of the intel–
lectuals to Communism was not so much opposition to Communism as
it was a reflection of the instinctive determination of the individual to
remain alive as an individual. Secondly, I am interested to know how
