The Literary Impact of
the American and French Revolutions
Susan Sontag:
As usual, the announced topic of the session will be in–
terpreted in a very broad way. We have with us Vassily Aksyonov,
Vladimir Tismaneanu, and Adam Michnik.
I'll
speak after them, and then
we'll have some debate and contributions from the audience. First, Vass–
i1y Aksyonov.
Vassily Aksyo nov: In
my remarks, I am going to move the emphasis of
our panel, the subject of which is the impact on writers of the revolu–
tions that have occurred, from the plural to the singular, to the effect of
these revolutions on myself as a writer. I have been most impressed by the
human factor at work in the anti-Bolshevik revolutions, by the way that
old phraseology and formulations have collided with new ways of
thinking.
"There is an opinion, comrades ... "
In
this way, Leonid Brezhnev
used to sum up the ruling Politburo's sessions. "There is an opinion,
comrades . .. " used
to
be what any regional secretary, or factory di–
rector, or ship captain, or military commander would declare during the
innumera.ble meetings taking place throughout the USSR. "There is an
opinion ... " preceded any proposal to increase industrial production,
or to deprive a dissident of his constitutional rights and citizenship, or to
improve the Marxist education of the masses, or to challenge the
imperialists in Africa. "There is an opinion ... " was an indispensable
part of the Soviet Communist Party's phraseology. Boris Yeltsin, as he
was approaching his presidential inauguration ceremony, said to a group
of his close friends: "There is an opinion that I should pledge allegiance
to the country with my hand on the Bible. Personally, I love this idea;
however, I'm afraid it is still a bit premature." So, he pledged allegiance
with his hand on his heart; meanwhile, the object in question, the Holy
Bible, was humbly put on the table in front of him.
In
this episode, I
believe, a striking paradox of our time was reflected: the old phraseology
encountered a breathtakingly new content.
The collapse of the Communist world has given us some examples of
the highest drama, showing unthinkable turns in the people's fate. His–
tory selected completely unexpected individuals to lead the process: Lech
Walesa, Vaclav Havel, and finally Boris Yeltsin. Still, an underlying logic
might be found in those selections, the logic of a crumbling utopian
