490
PARTISAN REVIEW
an independent State.
In short, some nationalists can seek refuge from other nationalists,
within a supranational entity. Various examples are Crimea and the
Eastern Ukraine; Abkhazia, Moldova, and Tadjikistan. In some ways, the
processes at work in the former Soviet Union resemble those through
which the original Soviet Union was created, under the auspices of Lenin
and Stalin, three-quarters of a century ago. Such a trend exists today, but
it is a product of autonomous forces, which include the often frantic in–
teractions of nationalism mixed up on the ground. There is very little
that Americans, or other outsiders, can do about it all, one way or an–
other. It is unlikely that the outcomes, whether centralized or decentral–
ized, will be democratic or otherwise congenial to American values. It
was
glasnost
- freedom of expression - that blew the old Soviet Union
apart. It is unlikely that the consolidation of
glasnost
will be high among
the priorities of a restored Soviet Union.
Contemplation of what is now going on in the former Soviet
Union should concentrate the minds of the United States and its allies
on the state of their defenses, rather than on the possibilities of such an
unlikely contingency as the indefinite extension of democracy. It is evi–
dent from the rise of Zhirinovsky and other related developments that
humiliated nationalism is a major force today in the former Soviet
Union. Humiliated nationalism is the most dangerous force in history.
More than anything else it gave rise to the French Revolution, the
Russian, the Nazi, and the Chinese Revolutions. Its emergence in a di–
lapidated country still possessing nuclear weapons should hardly be re–
garded with the complacency which the progress of disarmament in the
West seems to register.
In general, post-Cold-War conditions seem to point to the need for
a more sober, alert, modest and realistic posture than the present still-in–
flated state of American official rhetoric yet seems to point to. No
doubt the calculations are more realistic, but the rhetoric has a tenden cy
to outrun these. I believe that, in time, if events in the interim allow
room enough, the expected expansion of the American elite may have a
healthy effect on this. The groups which have so long been left out, even
far out, can hardly be quite so complacent as those who have long been
in. Racial minorities in particular have been listening to that rhetoric for
a long time from the outside, where it doesn't sound so good.
A greater role for women, including black women, in international
decision-making could also have a major positive influence on interna–
tional social priorities, especially in the field of human reproduction. For
many years now, the international influence of the United States has
