Understanding Russia
Flanders, Ralph E.
Understanding Russia Soviet Opposition To Stalin, by George Fischer. Harvard University Press. 230 pp. $4. Reviewed by Sen. Ralph E. Flanders OUR government possesses a vast organization for...
...This propaganda was not believed or, if believed, excited envy, not friendship...
...It is not a new thing in Russian history...
...Fischer buttresses its truth by long, detailed examination of escapees...
...Fischer contends that this has been, continues to be, and will be the Russian ideal...
...Yet the Russian ideal can include libertarian impulses within the welfare government...
...Mass revolt is inconceivable...
...Another conclusion is negatively suggested by the book...
...In Russia, for instance, is it to make difficulties for the Soviet regime...
...The strength of the evidence and the validity of the conclusions can only be appreciated by reading the book, and this readers are strongly urged to do...
...The State Department must on no account ignore Fischer's book...
...This may be very different from what we fondly believe...
...We know we have made mistakes, particularly in the programs of the Voice of America...
...Vaslov and his army were surrendered to Stalin by a U. S. general, and Vaslov was hanged...
...had better know more about the possibilities than we do now...
...That is that our most productive field of operations will be found in the satellites and in the missionary areas now being cultivated by the Soviet...
...If this is all true, it is mostly discouraging...
...Wlien that happens, and only then, are they ready for a new government—a new deal...
...Mark it down as required reading for every one concerned—and who is not...
...It existed under the arbitrary and bureaucratic rule of the czars...
...It would ruin the Western world economically and spiritually...
...These show that the American ideal of individual initiative and responsibility was no part of the thinking of these revolutionists...
...it can do no harm...
...It has been deepened and strengthened under the deeper and stronger autocracy and bureaucracy of the Kremlin...
...That would be morally indefensible...
...Heart-breaking months of negotiation at last brought formal acceptance of his aid, but by then the war was already lost...
...If it is successful revolution that we have in mind we...
...Now, what are some of the conclusions...
...Far more important than appropriations for added means of spreading our message is wisdom to know what that message should be...
...George Fischer believes inertness is the underlying and overriding characteristic of the Russian peoples under the Soviet yoke...
...This might do some good...
...II The first lesson which Fischer draws from the Vaslov incident is that inertness is dissolved when a successful invasion destroys the power beneath which the people have lived inertly...
...It was_ Hitler's invasion which made possible the Vaslov attempt at revolution...
...On the face of it, this is a thin and insecure foundation on which to erect an analysis of Russian institutions, states of mind, and susceptibility to action and to change...
...The method of the author is to make a careful, detailed, and objective study of a particular incident in the history of World War II—the endeavor of a Russion general, captured by the Nazis, to raise an army from the Russian captives and get permission from Hitler to join in the attack on Stalin's armies...
...One answer would be to invade Russia...
...in effect, to sell electric refrigerators and washing-machines to the peoples of Russia and India...
...The action indicated seems to be negative—to stop doing and saying most of what we are doing and saying to the peoples of Russia...
...It is a waste of money and effort for us to try to sell them...
...It can at least be freed from the totalitarian drive for territorial expansion...
...Is it to stir up revolt...
...The Congress has been generous in providing personnel and facilities...
...This inertness is an instinctive, automatic adjustment to exterior and unpredictable controls...
...Atomic bombing, no matter how drastic, will not serve the purpose...
...Yet we are properly uneasy as to whether the information is well correlated and as to whether the consequent propaganda is effective...
...Vas-lov could easily raise the armies...
...What is there left to do...
...Inertness permits a degree of purely passive disaffection...
...For the neutral nations—the missionary field of the Soviet government—the lesson to be drawn is the grim necessity for an objective approach...
...It is age-old...
...The end result seems to require a complete reexamination of our propaganda...
...Instead, we might well concentrate on sending them authentic news, denying hostile intent, and expressing friendship...
...The^Russian ideal is not of necessity a menace to the peace of the world...
...Quite properly this information service is focussed on the Soviet lands and peoples, their satellites, and their missionary fields in the five continents of the globe...
...We must learn how these people live, think, and react...
...We ought also to know what is our purpose...
...Is our ultimate purpose a successful revolution...
...Ralph E. Flanders OUR government possesses a vast organization for collecting and spreading information abroad...
...For each satellite the same objective analysis that Fischer has given for Russia is needed...
...Their ideal was more that of the thoroughgoing welfare state...
...George Fischer's Soviet Opposition to Stalin sets out to inform us on this matter...
...After we got rid of the first fantastic and subversive Hollywood influence, we undertook...
...Anything stronger seals the fate of those who act...
...Fischer emphasizes that land invasion and occupation are essential...
...His second important point is drawn from the two Prague manifestos of the movement...
...Inertness is the price of continued existence...
...Our institutions, social and political, have no attractions for them...
Vol. 17 • February 1953 • No. 2
