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banks, and so on. Nor was it possible for them to foster this kind of vi–
sion. Since the opposition had been thoroughly defeated in the fifties,
the succeeding dissidents had to emerge from within the existing Leninist
culture. Thus they were the children of heresy.
Mitchell Ash: Yes, but the substitution of moral for political analysis is
no monopoly of the East European dissidents. It happens in America all
the time.
David Rosenberg: Much of this conference has focused on the issue of
historical memory, and anger has been expressed. It reminds me of a
comment of Goethe's, in the conversations with Eckermann, in which
he said something to the effect that society would one day become a
great hospital in which everyone would be everyone else's nurse, to help
the therapeutic airing of distress.
To Ljiljana Smajlovic: Before the breakdown of Yugoslavia, I recall
a piece by a Yugoslav journalist who wrote that in order to live in Yu–
goslavia it was necessary to suppress the memory of the past. Do you see
this as one of the causes of the catastrophe that has occurred in your
country?
Ljiljana Smajlovic: No, but there is the issue of national reconcilia–
tion, at the end of the war. It is true that we have never completely
reconciled with our collaborationist past.
To Vladimir. First, I did not mean to imply that the current situa–
tion is like that in 1920s and 1930s Germany. I talked about the percep–
tion of Germany, not about parallels between Milosevic and Tudjman.
And I did not invoke Zimmerman's name in vain by quoting only parts
from the many things he has said. I mentioned this only because we do
not know how the decision to recognize Slovenia was reached. I think
Zimmerman was trying to convey something without saying it. But I
thought the piece in
Foreign Affairs
was more self-serving than illuminat–
mg.
Vladimir Tismaneanu: I know that it is not common for an Ameri–
can diplomat to say, "I was wrong." And if this is self-serving, I am
wondering what self-criticism is.
Christian Fleck: To Ms. Halpert, on the German domination of the
Austrian media. I know a number of German journalists, and they all
complain that there is something like an Austrian cultural imperialism in
