An Open Letter to Svetlana

...thanks to our political system of checks and balances, and thanks to the multiplicity of cultures woven into our national fabric...

...I think I know America better than most historians, sociologists and commentators I have worked in our sweatshops, in our fields, in our laboratories, and in our schools I have lived in our slums and mingled with the rich I have been a "have-not" and a "have " As an American, I do all that I can to help in the unending task of overcoming our national shortcomings...

...Sincerely yours, A Pennsylvania Farmer...

...Fifty years after Lenin's victory over the Democratic Socialists, 200 million Russians and countless millions m the other Communist-ruled countries are regimented and deprived of freedom of movement because of Lenin's false principles And his strategy of "training the cadres" on the battlefield to undermine "capitalism" and prepare it for the final blow sends poor, deluded, brainwashed youths in Vietnam and elsewhere to kill and be killed...

...Now I want to tell you and my fellow Americans something important about the Russian Revolution, about the source of the tragedies it brought to your country and to the world, about Lenin and his followers--something our leaders, historians and opinion makers know, or should know I am an old man with a good memory I still remember the crowning of Nicholas II...

...I am not a native American I am one of the 30 million who came after the Revolution I came 65 years ago before most of the living Americans were born I had read about Indians, the Brooklyn Bridge, and about poor people eating white bread every day--something we saw on the table on Sabbath day only I came alone at the age of 14...

...the last Tsar of Russia I still remember the beginnings of the revolutionary activity at the turn of the century I come from a small town in Lithuania My father was a scribe and we sold and circulated all kinds of books--religious, general literature and censored material The local intelligentsia came around evenings to discuss Marxism socialism and revolutionary strategy As an inquisitive youngster I absorbed much of what was said...

...It is still thus The divinity of Marx and Lenin is still the religion and the bible of the Communist movement What is most tragic, Lenin's evil principles and inhuman strategy still dominates Communism There will be no peace in the world as long as this strategy prevails Communist Countries will send weapons and manpower to points of active Communist or even Fascist subversion of democracies We forget that the Kremlin supplied gas to Mussolini for his invasion of Ethiopia, that when Hitler doublecrossed your father in June 1941, there was about $200 million worth of war materiel being shipped from Japan to the Nazis on the Trans-Siberian railroad...

...I came to New York's East Side m 1902 For years I spent my free evenings between the galleries of the theater and the Socialist party, carrying the soap box for Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas When Lenin organized the Third International I dropped out, but never joined the Communists I knew early that Lenin had broken with Democratic Socialism in 1903 and organized Bolshevism on the self-destructive principle that the end justifies all means, including the he, distortion of history, denunciation of friends who would not he, cooperation with Fascism and Nazism, subversion and aggression against democratic countries...

...Today our enemies' strongest psychological weapon is the use of the word "nationalism They keep on telling the world that they are "national liberators" and many of us begin to believe it or, in any event, use it to criticize our leaders for our resistance of aggression Most of us forget or never knew that a dedicated Communist is in no sense a "nationalist " A Communist has no country He owes his life, his family, his friends and his people to the Communist international dictatorship which is supposed to "wither away" and become a brotherhood of no-government Yugoslavia is often cited as an exception But the truth is that Tito was out to save his own life When called to Moscow by your father, he refused to go and be liquidated as other Communist leaders from abroad had been It is that simple for those who wish to know...

...What I am trying to say, dear Svetlana, is not that as a people we are better than others, but merely that we are different from other peoples We are different in that we love freedom passionately, and we are most secure in our freedom thanks to the Spirit of '76...

...Before giving my credentials as an "average" American, I wish to tell you--and at the same time remind my fellow Americans--of two fundamental facts about our people First, our greatest heritage is, of course, the Spirit of '76, the American Revolution, which was basically a struggle of free men to remain free Second, the 30 million immigrants who came after the Revolution came for the same reason, they wanted freedom and would not be pushed around in the lands of their birth These two facts above all else explain why we behave as we do why we dislike bureaucrats at home and dictators abroad, why we make sacrifices for freedom, why we react violently against Fascist and Communist subversion and aggression...

...Your dream and mine could only come true if Russia would abandon Leninism, adopt democratic principles, and build a Socialist economy in an atmosphere of freedom It can and should maintain its military defenses, as we and other democratic nations do If under freedom of movement a million or two Russians left their homeland in the first years, I am convinced most would return And others would join you in the experiment to abolish economic exploitation and narrow the gulf between those "who have" and those "who have not," until there are no more poor among us...

...Yes, it would be wonderful Svetlana if your dream and mine became a reality Pray for it, all people hope for it...

...I spent three months in Russia in 1927, when your father began to consolidate his power and openly started to remove and later destroy his betters--including thousands who never opposed him and even many who had worshipped him I met with students and intellectuals from one end of the country to the other, from Minsk to Vladivostok, all wonderful young people brimming with warmth and energy In the Kremlin I met Mikoyan, Krylenko, Rykov and Kaganovich Invariably, when I asked questions they could not answer, they had one response "Tak Lenin pisal," Lenin wrote that...

...As for my country, I can assure you that we would cooperate and would certainly contribute our resources, now burned up in war, to help the economies of the poorer nations which are emerging from feudalism and imperialism Then we could all begin to work together for a world Brotherhood of Free Nations of Free Men...

...PERSPECTIVES An Open Letter to Svetlana Dear Svetlana Itake it that the "friend" to whom you wrote Twenty Letters (Harper & Row, 246 pp $5 95) is really the United States of America As an average American I am replying to thank you, to tell you that you are a remarkable person, and to invite you to remain with us as one more patriotic American...

...It is not Marx, whatever his sociopolitical delusions, who is to be blamed for the tragedies of our time It was not Lavrenti Beria and your father's other executioners who corrupted your country and enslaved its people It was Lenin's evil principle that the end rustifies all means and his strategy of centralization that enabled your father, a sick sadistic schemer, bent on outdoing both Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great, to destroy physically and psychologically most of what was good in Russia and in the Revolutionary movement...

...Your dream, dear Svetlana of a time when Russia and the United States will cooperate for peace, for security, for a better life for all mankind, is a wonderful dream Under present conditions, however, it cannot be realized You surely know, unlike most of us who do not know, how a Fascist or Communist dictatorship holds power It holds it by controlling the means of education and social intercourse, by silencing opposition with police action If you hear a woman shriek in the middle of the night and you know that a black wagon near her home is taking away her husband or child, whom she might never see again, your mouth will remain closed forever That is what a police state means...

...In spite of our domestic difficulties, I think we are the greatest bulwark for freedom We will not be cowed by strong men at home or by foreign dictators We may react at the wrong time or at the wrong place, but react we do We will never be enslaved, and we will continue to make sacrifices for our struggling friends abroad...

...When Lenin began to doubt his infallibility and planned reform by removing your father from power, it was too late He died, and tragedy came to Russia and the rest of the world...