MOSCOW MOODS
Durnad, Lionel
An Indian's Impression of: Moscow Moods By Lionel Durand Pan's INTERVIEWS with foreign diplomats resident behind the Iron Curtain have become an increasingly rare phenomenon for European...
...We .condemn one and appreciate the other...
...Q. How do you explain the distortions in the Soviet press about everything that happens in the Western press...
...The ordinary people you come across are natural, kindly...
...Am I correct in that interpretation...
...A cultured gentleman and a distinguished philosopher of considerable stature, Prof...
...I also have the feeling that Communism will reshape its character if we are wise and straight in our behavior...
...What has been their reaction...
...Radhakrishnan's observations...
...Q. Have you had a chance to tell the Russian leaders what you are telling me about the conditions in Russia...
...The Russians under the new regime used to mistake license for liberty...
...Russia's preparations are for defensive, not offensive war...
...These things will protect India against any form of Communism...
...I can tell you that on their behalf...
...Q. How would you say it is possible for the Western world to remove this [ear from the hearts of the Russian people...
...It is their desire and anxiety to raise their material state as speedily as possible...
...Now they feel suspicious toward the Western world...
...An Indian's Impression of: Moscow Moods By Lionel Durand Pan's INTERVIEWS with foreign diplomats resident behind the Iron Curtain have become an increasingly rare phenomenon for European journalists in recent years...
...This German officer, who was born and raised in Moscow and knows well European and Siberian Russia, remarked: " 'Russia needs time, is playing for time and America is giving the time essential to vast preparations in the Soviet Union...
...I'm a patriot...
...Prof...
...For Russia to strike first militarily would be a departure from Russian tradition and history...
...A. Yes, if we deal with them equitably...
...You see, the attraction of Communism is due not to the good points of Communism, but to the deficiencies of democracy...
...My informant, Prof...
...They have suffered a lot, and their economy is underdeveloped...
...Q. What is your feeling about the Russian proposal for a cease-fire in Korea...
...Like all historic institutions, the Russian state has elements of good and elements of evil...
...There are hundreds of things in Russia which require remedy...
...It is wrong to think that they are insensitive to the higher values, the pursuit of truth, the search for love, beauty, and goodness...
...A. As far as religion is concerned, it is not being oppressed as actively as it used to be...
...But if we go on saying that the Kremlin represents monstrous iniquity and that we shall try to abolish it and liberate the Russian people from the Kremlin, the Russians will feel that we are trying to interfere...
...But I can tell you this much: the Russian people are today tending toward peace, and they are anxious for material reconstruction...
...I have had conversations on the subject with the Chinese representatives in Moscow...
...No settlement can last, however, so long as you do not have the consent and cooperation of the people of China...
...Would you consider the United Nations adequate...
...Until you remove that fear it will not be possible for us to come to terms with their way of life...
...Q. // the conditions for better understanding could be achieved, would you say there could be a coexistence of the two systems...
...Q. you probably have met Joseph Stalin...
...A. One man's impressions may be different from another's...
...A. I am prepared to say emphatically that Soviet Russia is very keen on a peaceful settlement of the outstanding issues today...
...But if the West goes on isolating the Chinese more and more, they will find no alternative other than the one which they have now adopted...
...That I can tell you...
...Q. What would you say the general feeling of the Russian people is toward the world at large...
...Our intention must be to strengthen the elements of good and diminish the elements of evil...
...one of the few countries not directly involved in the "Cold War" between East and West, can you tell me what your impressions are of life in Moscow and the present state of mind of the Russians...
...After all, we must recognize that if there is oppression and political domination in Russia, they exist too in South Africa—which is considered a democracy—where two million people are governing seven million people, segregating them, and depriving them of their rights...
...I was fortunate to obtain such an interview recently and it is a pleasure to pass on to readers of The Progressive this first hand report on what people inside Soviet Russia think and feel about the prospects for peace or war...
...So I do the utmost to prevent a new world war...
...I want to leave my country in peace and security and not in flames...
...Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, is the Indian ambassador to Moscow...
...The first thing necessary is to put all nationalism in its proper place and subordinate it to loyalty, to a world community, and that is what UNESCO is tending to do...
...Q. As a diplomat representing LIONEL DURAND, foreign editor of Paris Presse, roams Europe constantly for the second largest daily in the French capital...
...Stalin once told Anthony Eden: "I am not like Hitler, I know when to stop...
...Radhakrishnan has taught in both Great Britain and the United States...
...If we recognize that patriotism is not enough, that nationalism is not enough, that we are working towards a world community, we shall understand that a political organization is not enough...
...They are first concerned with the increasing of the standard of life...
...The bad features will disappear...
...On account of present conditions we are not, of course, allowed to go anywhere we please...
...He was professor of philosophy and ethics at Oxford and the University of Chicago, as well as at universities in India...
...Unless you are able to make people rise out of their nationalism and admit their loyalty to a world community, it is not possible for you to make this United Nations organization successful...
...We cannot do so as long as fear is the predominant concept...
...A. At the present moment the Russians are conscious of some kind of danger they feel is threatening them from the outside...
...Q. You seem to imply that Soviet Communism is taking a more liberal shape...
...Now they eat...
...But if you want to suppress the police side, they must get rid of the fear of external intervention...
...Let us say we shall stop doing everything to undermine the authority of these governments...
...A. They say: "It is a transitional period...
...There is today the police side of the Russian State, there is also the welfare side...
...A. The first thing we have to say is: Let the Russians abolish the Cominform, and we will not interfere with the system of government which prevails in Russia and China...
...So when they execute a McGhee in America, they put up placards saying: Look what the Americans do to Negroes...
...Durand was that paper's correspondent in Washington and New York for several years...
...A. So far as India is concerned, she has greater faith in UNESCO than in the UN itself because the UN is essentially a political organization...
...A. The Russians stand, they say, for the liberation of all oppressed people...
...Q. You have undoubtedly had contacts with representatives of the Chinese People's Republic in Moscow...
...Radhakrishnan gave me an hour for our interview in between sessions of the UNESCO conference he was attending...
...Life is something ever growing...
...Stalin is a cautious man...
...There are things diplomats are allowed but many they are not allowed to do...
...They have now more conventional rules about marriage, education, and such things...
...It would be most unfortunate if, in a settlement, Chiang Kai-shek's regime was taken into consideration instead of the real people of China...
...Q. What do you think is the position of Russia on a settlement of the East-West conflict...
...You see, I think Communism has not assumed its permanent character...
...As subsequently reported in Human Events, ultra-conservative Washington newsletter, Von Wiegand interviewed Lt...
...Trust begets trust, distrust increases distrust...
...A. I am convinced that there will be adaptations in both systems...
...A. You understand, of course, that I am still holding an official position...
...A. First, I believe the possibilities should be explored fully...
...Soviet Preparations are Defensive' The notion that Soviet Russia's military program is defensive in character finds curious support in a recent dispatch by Karl Von Weigand, dean of Hearst foreign correspondents, published in the violently anti-Communist New York Journal-American...
...Just give us some peace...
...We can help it to reform, but we must not do it in a spirit of hatredQ. What do you think is the hope of the world, in a larger view...
...Koestring, for many years German military attache in Moscow who is "regarded as probably the best German military authority on Russian strategic thinking...
...Q. Do you think that India may swing toward Communism...
...How would you say reality compares with their description...
...A. So far as the ordinary mil-ions of people in Russia are concerned, they never knew anything of political freedom, even before the Bolshevik revolution...
...He is chairman of the Indian Commission on Universities, the author of many books on the problems of the East, and the editor of the works of Gandhi...
...We have not proceeded the right way...
...It has never been very steady...
...Q. Do the Chinese Communists have a real desire to cooperate with the Western powers...
...They must be satisfied in their desire for security...
...Q. You know of the picture drawn by Communists in the Western world of life in "the Soviet Paradise...
...I mean the effective people who are responsible for their foreign policy...
...The intellectuals in Russia may feel the loss of freedom since their class did enjoy privileges before the Communists took over...
...We believe firmly that a single world community cannot develop on the basis of men who are still nationally minded...
...Q. Do you think that the desire expressed is real...
...After that they had Hitler's attempt to destroy them...
...Therefore they must have peace...
...Q. Did you have direct evidence of that in Moscow...
...Was Stalin sincere...
...A. I had contacts with the people there...
...It is still fluid, and it is our duty to help it form itself into a desirable shape...
...After all, they are vitally interested...
...You may turn it, any way you want...
...Each form of government will change and the Russian form also will change...
...A. I don't think that they have any aim at the moment, except that of reconstruction...
...They of course exaggerate and exploit, but they do find food for their propaganda in what's happening in Indochina or in Persia or elsewhere...
...A. I think the desire is sincere...
...That fear may be imaginary, but it is real in the hearts of the Russian people...
...We believe that UNESCO has got the aim of developing intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind...
...This comes before you can expect a rise in the world of mind and spirit...
...Through the mutual adaptation process, they now must be able to throw away what is regarded as bad features of the Soviet regime just as there are, in the Western world, the injustice and iniquities of what we call unfettered free enterprise...
...In the first outburst of enthusiasm, during the revolution, the Russians introduced many ideals which they have gradually thrown away...
...A. There are certain fundamental values for which we stand: one is faith and religion, the other is hatred of violence...
...Before moving on to a stenographic report of our interview, I would like to make it clear that I am not in a position to pass judgment on Prof...
...What are the Chinese aims in the world...
...What does he stand for...
...You find that more attention is paid to the material reconstruction based on the principle "You must live before you can live well...
...They had a civil war in the beginning and outside intervention...
...They stand for no race discrimination...
...What do you think is the policy of that new regime...
...I know that there is a certain amount of good feeling in America for the people of China...
...My hope is that Communism has not reached a solid form in Russia...
...It would be an easy task for us...
...So long as our attitudes are nationalistic no world organization can prosper...
...I present them, unvarnished, exactly as he expressed them in our talk...
...But the people were also starving before...
...What is your estimate of the man...
...His offensive weapon is Communism...
Vol. 15 • August 1951 • No. 8
