WOLFE ON RUSSIA
Petrovich, Michael B.
Wolfe on Russia Six Keys to the Soviet System, by Bertram D. Wolfe. Beacon Press. 258 pp. $3.75. Reviewed by Michael B. Petrovich IF Bertram Wolfe should never, write another word—a painful...
...He has served as chief ideological adviser to the Voice of America, and his opinions have been frequently sought— though not as frequently heeded—by the Department of State...
...I happen to agree with our former ambassador to the U.S.S.R...
...it is a conflict "between the nature of men, whatever their creed or culture, and a form of government which would deprive them of their humanity...
...Except for minor editorial revisions, they are reprinted as they were originally published...
...Wolfe's point is that Stalin's heirs are not "new men" but old cronies, and that their smiles do not amount to a "new look...
...Wolfe is no ordinary free-lancer making the most of a potent pen and the public's preoccupation with So...
...It is no use for Admiral Leslie C. Stevens to assure us in his intro-' duction to the present volume that Wolfe is not a publicist...
...viet Communism...
...Reviewed by Michael B. Petrovich IF Bertram Wolfe should never, write another word—a painful thought—posterity would remember him chiefly as the author of Three Who Made a Revolution...
...Such a view tends to seek out sources of Soviet weakness while ignoring or belittling sources of Soviet strength...
...It is based on the sensible and realistic conclusion that the present world tension is not primarily a contest between the United States and the U.S.S.R., or between capitalism and socialism, or even between free world and slave world...
...He has engaged in scholarly research as a Senior Fellow in Slavic Studies at Stanford University and the Russian Institute of Columbia University...
...The author has made three protracted trips to the Soviet Union...
...He has met the leading- personalities of that regime— Stalki, Molotov, Trotsky, Bukharin, and others...
...The title of Wolfe's present volume should not give readers the hope that they are to be presented with the six keys to the Soviet enigma...
...He has a working knowledge of...
...that Wolfe does deal with the record, that his writings are indeed logical, richly supported by evidence, and presented with eloquence...
...When he writes about the U.S.S.R., this is not simply IfiMivelihood...
...The six keys to the Soviet system which Wolfe does discuss in this collection of articles are the struggle for power, the coordination of culture, the worker in the workers' state, Soviet elections, Soviet relations with the satellite states of Europe and China, and finally the nature of totalitarianism...
...Wolfe's contemporaries must nevertheless think of him also as a journalist, a news analyst, a commentator on foreign affairs, or—to use a term that has more meaning abroad than in our own country—a publicist, in the best sense...
...Collective leadership is difficult at best, but without democracy," he writes, "it is impossible...
...We must state positively, and offer our deeds as proof, that it is the democratic nations, despite their imperfections, who are the real advocates of agrarian reform, a just and enduring peace, freedom, economic opportunity, national and cultural self-determination, and the right of the human spirit to create and flourish...
...Where there are no constitutional rules for collective procedure, where in all fields there is dictatorship, where force settles all things, where opposition is not part of the game of politics but something to be eliminated and crushed, the whole momentum of the state and the system drives relentlessly toward personal dictatorship...
...His thesis must stand until proven wrong, however such a course may disappoint optimistic hopes...
...How seriously this turn in Soviet policy might affect Wolfe's thesis cannot be determined in any short period of time, but certainly logic and historical evidence are on Wolfe's side...
...The views expressed here were first published in the July 1953 issue of Foreign Affairs, before Khrushchev's dramatic degradation of Stalin before the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party...
...Wolfe argues that post-Stalin Russia cannot be governed by a lasting collective leadership...
...The gist of this document—which Wolfe regrets was not implemented—is that Soviet Communism has not only failed, after more than a third of a century, to live up to its promises, but that it has brought about the exact opposite of those promises—unending conflict instead of peace, perpetual scarcity instead of plenty, slavery instead of freedom, and imperialism instead of self-determination...
...As the author himself observes in his preface, his book lacks at least two essential keys, among many: one dealing with Soviet agriculture, and the other with Soviet economic planning...
...But it is not enough, Wolfe insists, to broadcast to the world these negative facts...
...This study of the pre-1917 careers of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin places Wolfe in the front ranks of scholars in the field of recent Russian history...
...Six Keys to the Soviet System is a collection of articles which were written between 1947 and 1955...
...But above all, Bertram Wolfe is a dedicated warrior against what he aptly calls "the expropriation of the human spirit" by totalitarianism of any kind...
...The author is no pessimist himself...
...On the contrary, a fundamental weakness not only of his book, but of his outlook, lies, paradoxically, in his strong conviction that Soviet Communism, like any brand of totalitarianism, is doomed, and that democracy has in its own possession "all the explosive weapons of freedom...
...policy planners...
...the Russian language...
...Anyone who has read these articles when they first appeared must surely marvel at how well they have survived the most convulsive shifts on the Soviet scene...
...Behind Wolfe's powerful prose there operates an indivisible trinity—the canny reporter, the erudite scholar, and the wrathful prophet...
...It is precisely for these reasons that Wolfe must be counted among the most effective publicists of our day...
...Bearing this vital message, Bertram Wolfe's book ends with an excerpt from a memorandum, now declassified, which he prepared for U.S...
...However, Wolfe's optimism leads to a refreshingly positive attitude which more Americans ought to take to heart...
...While each of the articles under these headings is a finished piece in itself, the book presents no mere potpourri but a concentrated selection based on the author's consistent outlook...
...it is his life...
Vol. 20 • July 1956 • No. 7
