The usual fate of Russian Jeffersons being what it is. Sakharov fully experienced ihe misery of exile, isolation and torture. It would seem rather natural for him to become as embittered and contemptuous of the state which did this as Solzhenitsyn became. It would seem logical if he agreed wilh Pipes that unless this brutal police state is pushed to the wall nothing good could ever be expected from it. It would seem reasonable for him to call on the West not to trust Gorbachev or, at least declare along with A. M. Rosenthal, the former executive editor of 7he New York Times, Mr Gorbachev is certainly a smoother chap than most of his predecessors but he has not touched the police nature of the Soviet state and has not even hinted at it. How could he' He is part of it and rules through it . . . Myself, I will wait until Mr Gorbachev arrests and tries the men who sent . Dr Sakharov into exile.' In other words, it would seem logical for Andrei Sakharov to condemn everything this book stands for Would he?
The central premise of the book is that there are two Russias — in perennial and mortal opposition to each other. And because of this what seems natural, logical and reasonable to the extremist Russia of Solzhenitsyn must be unnatural, illogical and unreasonable for the other Russia.
According to the extremist Russia and its Western fellow travellers, Gorbachev's reforms must be cancelled — by pressure, by disbelief, by Star Wars. According to the other Russia, it is vitally important for the West to see to it that the reforms succeed — if only to prevent the transformation of the USSR into a fascist nuclear monster. Which of these irreconcilably opposite stands would the Russian Jefferson take?
If the premise of this book is correct, then, however embittered, Sakharov back in Moscow would say something like this:
It s in the interests of the West that these reforms should succeed so that the Soviet Union can be a more stable partner. The West must not try to corner the Soviet Union. A cornered nation is always dangerous.
And this is what Sakharov, in fact, said on 14 February, 1987. What he couldn't have sa. 1 publicly — a pre-modern state with a human face is still pre-modern — is perhaps this: It is time to start the de- Brezhnevizat on of world politics. It is imperative to return to the Khrushchev-Kennedy political agenda of 1963 brutally interrupted by the fatal shots in Dallas and the Brezhnevist coup in Moscow. For all his polish and courage, Gorbachev is a pre-modern politician. He needs guidance, not resistance. He needs someone n Washington who would be able to do for him what Kennedy had done for Khrushchev — to clear the way for the idea of a world safe for diversity. If it comes to that, it is not Gorbachev who should ask the West to support his bold effort to prevent a garrison state in Moscow, it is the West who should guide him into this — for all of us to survive in the nuclear age.
Appendix
Table 1 Soviet Meta-Ideology
Dictatorial Era
Sub-Ideology of National Communism
Major Beliefs:
Socialism as a new era ,n the
history of mankind
State ownership of the means
of production — sole means of ending exploitation of man by man
Paternalism (Father of the Fatherland)
Inevitability of World War III
Imperative of national survival
Guns instead of butter
Asceticism
Isolationism and fortress mentality
Total control over culture
The permanent sharpening
of the class struggle
Revolutionary translormation
of the World
Post-Dictatorial Era Sub-Ideology of Soviet Protestantism
Major Beliefs:
Socialism as a new era in the history of mankind
State ownership of the means of production — sole means of ending exploitation of man by man
Collective leadership
World War III is not inevitable Imperative of economic retorm Butter instead of guns Consumer satisfaction Detente with the West
Cultural thaw
No class struggle in soeialism Peaceful coexistence
Table 2 Russia's Reformist Attempts and Their Outcomes
Attempt of the 1550s — reversed by a counter-reform Attempt of the 1610s — faded into political stagnation Attempt of the 1680s — reversed by a counter-reform Attempt of the 1720s — faded into political stagnation Attempt of the 1760s — faded into political stagnation Attempt of 1801 — faded into political stagnation Attempt of the 1820s — reversed by a counter-reform Attempt of the 1860s — faded into political stagnation Attempt of 1879 — 80 — reversed by a counter-reform
Attempt of 1905 Attempt of 1917 faded into political stagnation reversed by a counter-reform
Attempt of the 1920s — reversed b> a counter-reform Attempt of the 1960s — faded into political stagnation Attempt of 1985 — ?
Russia's Counter-reformist Dictatorships
1560-1584 1689-1725 1796-1801 1825-1855 1881-1894 1918-1921 1929-1953
т:) (КГ) (KI-) (КГ) (ЕГ) (КГ) IEV) (КГ; (КГ)
Collapse Collapse
R Reform CR Countcrreform KF European family
Figure 1 Five Centuries of Russian History in One Chart
Figure 2 Structure of Russia's Historical Cycles
(6) National Leadership
(5) Metropolitan Elites
Party Professionals (7)
~Л
'Priesthood' (8)
/
\
(4) Middle Managerial Class
/
Central Economic Bureaucracy (9)
\
(3) Worker and Peasant Elites
(2) Professional Class
(1) Liberal Intelligentsia /
The Brezhnev (center-right) coalition:
+ (6) + (7) + (8) + (9) + (10)
The alternative (center-left) reform coalition:
(1) + (2) + (3) + (4) + (5) + (6)
The alternative (right-wing) counterreform coalition:
+ (9) + (10) + (11) + (12)
Military-Industrial Complex (10)
\
The Russian New Right (11)
\
Unskilled Workers and Peasants (12)
Figure 3 The Political Structure of Soviet Society
Index
Afghanistan, 1, 6, 15, 41 Agurskii, Mikhail, 144, 145, 147, 152 Aksakov, Ivan, 20, 33, 35, 36, 39, 52, 93, 110, 141, 209, 219, 220, 224, 247, 259
Aksakov, Konstantin, 19, 21, 22, 27, 33, 46, 58, 72, 84, 168, 173-5, 183, 195,204 Alekseev, Mikhail, 115, 125 Alexander I, Emperor, 111, 215 Alexander II, Emperor, 215, 217, 221,279
Alexander III, Emperor, 13, 36, 55,
73, 78, 149, 215, 219, 221, 283 Allen, Richard 6, 8 Amalrik, Andrei, 14, 27 Andropov, Yuri, 126 Anti-Americanism, 107 — 9, 123 see also Western democracy Anti-semitism ('Anti-Zionism'), 12, 13, 33, 34, 39, 40, 42-4, 46, 48, 50, 98, 103, 129, 142-8, 161, 162, 213, 228, 229, 245, 246, 256-8
Antonov, Mikhail, 137-9, 146, 152, 174, 185, 190, 224, 228, 245, 268, 270, 271 Antonii, Bishop Volynskii, 62 Avvakum, Archpriest, 110
Bailey, George, 12 Belinskii, Vissarion, 30 Belorussians, 160 Berdiaev, Nikolai, xv, 5, 93, 96, 97,
102, 134, 248 Besanqxm, Alain, 60 Bestuzhev-Riumin, Konstantin, 131
Bezborodko, Aleksandr, 8 Biaier, Seweryn, 268—70 Black Hundreds', 42, 52, 55, 62, 63, 66, 87, 129, 137, 145, 159, 163, 190,213 see also Russian fascism Bogrov, Mordechai, 198, 202,