Suchergebnisse

EXAMINES THE OFFICIAL REACTION OF THE SOVIET COMMUNIST PARTY TO THE WRITINGS OF THE NEW LEFT THEORISTS. STUDIES THE REASONS FOR MOSCOW'S LACK OF SYMPATHY WITH THIS REVOLUTIONARY IDEOLOGY. FINDS INDICATIONS THAT THE NEW LEFT HAS SOME FOLLOWERS AMONG THE SOVIET INTELLIGENTSIA.

7 chief points touching on the ideological contradictions between Moscow & Peking deserve attention, though some are less important than others. The USSR achieved its revolution by depending on the workers, the Chinese by depending on the peasants. Moscow spoke of a dictatorship, Peking of a hegemony of the proletariat (but some agreement has lessened the contrast). So far as the intellectuals are concerned, Chinese `toleration' exists in words only. By contrast, the Chinese allowed articles to be published since the Hungarian crisis which reproached the USSR for its `chauvinism'; articles whose effectiveness was destroyed by the overt accepting by Peking of Moscow's 'intervention in the internal affairs of Hungary & Poland.' Minor diff's also exist concerning the right to strike. So far as the dialectic is concerned, if China & the USSR are in accord in their distinguishing `antagonistic from non-antagonistic contradictions', it would seem that China maintains, as opposed to the USSR, on one side the persistence of antagonistic contradictions, & on the other side the persistence of contradictions between the governed & the governors in a socialsit nation. Tr. By J. A. Broussard.

The Moscow public theatre is composed almost entirely of members of the elite &, as the plays deal chiefly with the milieu of public officials & 'managers', the spectators naturally see the reflection of their own problems in what takes place on the stage. The characters often reveal the faults generally attributed to bourgeois elites: arrogance, bur'ic mentality, lack of contact with people, & a tendency to take advantage of their 'contacts' for professional ends. In this respect, Soviet dramatists are in the tradition of Gogol & Ostrovski, who criticized the ruling class though belonging to it themselves. There is, however, one important diff: whereas the 19th cent Russian writers were (like the majority of contemporary western authors) profound pessimists, Soviet writers are essentially optimists, despite their often bitter criticism of the present society. This is due chiefly to their faith in the Communist Party, deus ex machina which will eventually make everything right. (Translated by Z. Dana from IPSA).