RUSSIA REVISITED
Fischer, George
Russia Revisited A New Russia?, by Harrison E. Salisbury. Harper and Row. 143 pp. $3.50. Reviewed by George Fischer Is the Russia of today a new Russia? To what extent? In what ways? To these...
...Above all, A New Russia...
...Nevertheless they command interest, for Salisbury, a correspondent of the Times and now one of its editors, is one of the few really knowledgeable and enlightened American journalists currently writing on this difficult subject...
...The next chapter focuses on the variety and rapid spread of new, unconventional ideas among the Soviet counterparts of the "angry young men," "beatniks," and juvenile delinquents of other lands...
...opens with a description of the novel informality and openness that the author found among Soviet people as he entered Russia...
...Salisbury stresses a parallel development among intellectuals...
...Each and every one of them may turn out to be crucial...
...Another chapter goes into the new "Men of the Sixties," outspoken writers and intellectuals who model themselves on the famous democratic opponents to Russian autocracy in the 1860's...
...I find, after visiting Russia several times in the last few years, that in general terms my own impressions and conclusions accord with Salisbury's...
...And today the tangible aspirations of the unorthodox seem to resemble neither John Stuart Mill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor Jawahar-lal Nehru but the less rigorous Communist practices under Lenin and more recently Tito or Gomulka...
...Developments that a couple of years earlier appeared only dimly or tentatively now seemed full-blown or almost so...
...One is the possible rise among Soviet leaders of "neo-Stalinists" who favor Stalin's methods of ruling rather than recent meliorations and innovations...
...One concerns the extent and also the influence of the unorthodox trends to which he rightly calls attention...
...Above and beyond everything else, the big decisions for some time to come are likely to be those not of the people but of the huge, dominant Soviet state...
...The answers tend to be abbreviated and far from all-embracing...
...What gives hope, as Salisbury brings out in A New Russia?, is that liberalization does create some new possibilities for both people and the state...
...Salisbury believes that "Russian liberalism was a hardy plant" and that "given a reasonable chance the flower of change could still blossom on the wind-swept steppe...
...And some things stood out that in 1959 and before were not to be seen at all...
...reminds us that the changes taking place are not merely superficial but significant and real, that they may quite conceivably (here the author hedges wisely) transform fundamentally the country and its politics...
...At least up to now, the state shows little in common between its own liberalization and liberalism...
...Alas, in the course of Russian history, liberalism by any Western definition has not been strong at all...
...What we have are no more than undercurrents in a generally placid sea...
...This is a short book which grew out of articles that appeared in The New York Times soon after Salisbury returned from a two months return visit to Russia last winter...
...This is the marked increase in popular involvement, including the young, in religion...
...The book then turns to one of Russia's most significant developments...
...My only major disagreement with Salisbury is on two points...
...This is a groping for a faith that lies somewhere between the categorical rationalism, materialism, and radicalism of Soviet Communists and the old fashioned theology and ritual of most Russian Orthodox believers...
...Closely related to this is the second point...
...As of now, however, their importance can be exaggerated...
...As others have done, Salisbury tries to pull together as much as is known about two questions of particular current interest to Americans...
...The other is the continuing evidence of both official and officially tolerated anti-Semitism (or, as the author describes it, anti-Jew-ishness...
...To these questions Harrison E. Salisbury returns again and again in a highly personal narrative...
...In late 1961 and early 1962, Salisbury saw and felt much more change in Russia than he had on his last previous visit, in 1959...
Vol. 26 • October 1962 • No. 10
