After Fatigue of Stalin, Hope in Perestroika

During one of his recent visits to Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz was interviewed by the magazine Ogonyok. The last question that we asked him was rather audacious: Was Shultz casting about for a new “armchair” that, because of the presidential election, he might need before the year is out?

He laughed and said that he was dreaming of a sofa rather than an armchair. He just wanted to lie down on a comfortable sofa and take a breather.

I understand just how he feels. In the avalanche of recent events, one really feels like stopping and taking a look around to assess what is going on. It may sound like a paradox, but we Soviet people draw strength from our fatigue since we know its specific cause.

The cause is Josef Stalin. Despite our inexhaustible strength, hopes and optimism, we have been worn out by his disrespect for people. And we resent being viewed as cogs that were roughly hammered on more than once.

So it is natural that a man belonging to another generation and possessing a new mentality has come to the fore in the Soviet leadership. Mikhail S. Gorbachev is the first Soviet leader not connected in any administrative way with Stalin’s times. All of his predecessors had occupied some post, however insignificant, under Stalin.

We are worn out by senseless orders and empty promises. We are tired, yes, but we have not turned cynical. After rejecting Stalin’s autocracy we had to start shouldering the responsibilities, discussing openly many aspects of our lives and doing things in a new way.

The Soviet people have built giant plants and collective farms, made the largest rockets and vessels. Yet we have not become any happier for it despite the promises of a radiant future, the best that could be had. This is one of the differences between the Soviet Union and the United States. We build a future for our children, while America lives for the present. I have rarely heard Americans say that, though they have a hard time now, their children will be better off. I have the impression that Americans want to see the results of their efforts today and not think of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

As far as I can remember, my grandfathers and grandmothers stoically bore all hardships, trusting that my life would be a happier one. My father and mother were absolutely convinced that if I would not be absolutely happy, their grandchildren surely would be.

Perestroika has drawn up a precise plan that includes more than just fine prospects for the distant future. There are transformations--and not only in the material sphere. We are learning not to fear the truth. Though they might be quite cruel at times, we are growing accustomed to everyday realities.

I also view perestroika as a return to normality, as an understanding of the fact that it is abnormal to have one boss for every six or seven workers. By July 1 the bureaucrats will no longer have the use of cars provided free of charge by the state for their personal use. Imagine 400,000 cars in the United States maintained at the expense of the taxpayers.

The Stalin-bred bureaucracy had shaped the country to suit itself, to make it easier for them to command. Today its supporters have an easy life, hence they want none of the changes that perestroika brings. Recently there have been articles in several newspapers and journals openly disputing Gorbachev’s democratic course. We have to retaliate, and we do.

Ogonyok’s entire policy is directed against the survival of Stalinism. We have come to realize that we must move beyond the euphoria of the first months of perestroika , when we thought that the whole country would rally round its wonderful slogans, to serious combat to make perestroika materialize.

We are currently destroying another of Stalin’s myths--that the world surrounding our country is mostly hostile. Stalin justified years of terror by what he declared was the need to fight the enemy. In those days it was taken for granted that the country itself was teeming with spies. Before World War II the spies were mostly Germans and Japanese. After the war they were Americans. There is something in common not only in the universal striving for democracy but in spy hysteria, or McCarthyism, as well.

Ordinary normal people are starting to treat each other better. Yet I have the feeling that hard-liners in the Soviet Union and the United States are cooperating beautifully. When American bureaucrats deny someone a visa, our bureaucrats reciprocate with the same. And afterward, I suppose, they all rub their hands in glee as if to congratulate themselves.

Nevertheless, the people in my country are becoming stronger, friendlier and more self-confident. If you have met Soviet people previously and in more recent times, you are sure to feel the difference.