COMMUNISM IS THE GREATEST FAILURE IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND At the recent congress of the delegations of Communist parties from all over the world, held in Berlin, many well-known things have been reiterated: satellite-countries will continue to live under the Soviet umbrella, and the Communist parties in the other countries are free to conduct an autonomous policy. Many other more important things must have been said there, things we do not know, and which perhaps contradict the official assertions. Others were probably kept from us because only Brezhnev and Moscow must know them. However, one thing was said in public, and it is telling: Brezhnev said "it is false to believes what others claim, namely that Communism is obsolete ideologically." Of course, we cannot expect Brezhnev to say otherwise. However, he raised the issue. And it is an issue, an important one.Journalists, political thinkers, and many others have highlighted the fact that European Communist parties had to make enormous concessions, at least verbally, but ones which are serious ideologically. The Communist parties had to make concessions to "middle-class" humanism, to accept some freedoms in principle, to accept the possibility of opposition, and so on, everything basically at lip level, but still – Indeed, Communism is in full disarray. Theoretically, for the time being. I believe the disarray became public for the first time in Portugal, not long ago. Communism was the greatest failure, and the most tragic one, of the contemporary world. By denying this fact, Brezhnev is actually emphasizing it. Some Marxists admit it, but they think like Duverger that Socialism can succeed elsewhere, for instance in France. God has protected us from this dubious trial. In Italy, the Communists have followers exclusively due to Berlinguer's personal charm and to the fact that the Italian Communist propaganda cleverly relied, for many years, on an Italian type of Communism, independent from Moscow. This is what the French Communism should have done as well; it is beginning, late and in a hurry, to rely on the idea of a "French Communism." As Marchais' party is going down, the French Socialist Party took over this shaky solution with both hands.In 1967, the entire world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. However, since then, things have changed a lot.Lucid analyses made by the elite of the French political intelligentsia, those of Raymond Aron, one of the few anti-Marxists, Papaianou, and Fejto, having deep knowledge of Marxism, those of former Communists like Pierre Daix or Garaudy, have finally managed to shake the most stubborn. Not long ago, Jean François Revel debunked the "surreality" of the Soviet society (usually, an ideology is the product of social reality, but in Soviet Russia reality must adjust to the ideology – he says), and Alain Besancon debunked the totalitarian temptation. There were also Glucksman and George Suffert, there used to be Russet, Grenier, and Domenach before, who were not heeded in their time.Finally, recently the great Russian heroes of the spiritual and intellectual resistance against Communism have spoken. They were heard, and they influenced the spirit of so many French intellectuals who had become Marxists, some out of generosity, most because they made calculations. But de-Sovietizing, or de-Stalinizing, or de-Marxistizing France, or more appropriately the so-called French "intelligentsia," which is not always so very intelligent, can only be done slowly, little by little. The first to be disintoxicated will be the university professors, then high-school teachers, then primary school teachers, then the others, but 20 years are necessary for this disintoxication to be completed, 20 years for them to admit that Communism must be rejected, because it was a masquerade. What is happening in France will also take place in Germany, Britain, and the United States. If we can consider theater people intellectuals, we must say they were contaminated, infested by the catching ideological fury to the highest degree. Yes, 20 years are necessary for attitudes to change. A long time. Too long. The cynical Soviet leaders, who know not only that so far Communism has only established non-viable societies, but also that it can never establish any other kind of a society, are fully informed, for this very reason. Tens of thousands of tanks and airplanes, hundreds of thousands of troops from Soviet Russia are on Europe's borders, and they can silence the awakened minds in one moment. Forty-eight hours of war are enough for them to swallow us. Already the Soviet empire is stretching, occupying Africa, the Middle East, the world! How many odious crimes will be committed on this planet, although a world power, like Russia, if it was honest and humane, could establish peace, together with us? Unfortunately, however, the Communist parties all over the world, power-thirsty, will want to get to power by all means. Imagine, there is a multitude of organizations, a multitude of administrations that have been waiting for it for a long time, as there are also parties that prefer power rather than the truth, which prefer establishing tyranny, rather than resign. And, alongside with them, supporting them, whispering slogans, there is the odious Soviet empire, stretching its tentacles from one end of the universe to another. Yes, without the Soviet power, the Communist parties in the West would get deflated little by little.
Le Figaro, July 8, 1976
by Eugen Ionescu (1909-1994)
