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| Felix Gorelik |
During the Cold War years, the enemies of the USSR widely utilized for "polluting the brains of people" the writings of dissidents. Amongst them were books by Alexander Zinoviev, such as "Yellow Home," "Crisis of Communism," "Undertaking" - about 40 books and hundreds of articles. All of these, as if in a crooked mirror, pictured Soviet Society in a deformed and unrecognizable manner. Dissident Alexander Zinoviev laughed at and also heaped abuse and wrote in a very negative way about all the successes that transpired in the USSR: Communist ideology, the CPSU, the Soviet economy, culture, living conditions, not recognizing any successes or positive steps taken by the USSR. Of course all writings by these dissidents were loudly cheered in the West and were used in order to undermine faith in socialism in people of left orientation, purposely trying to instill deep crisis in the world communist movements. Here are just some "pearls" from his last book called "Undertaking:" Our system of life is making people very unlucky, making them extremely moody and worried," "this society is just a caricature of personal life and their work. They, the Soviet people are in themselves different, strange and not normal." "Here everything is gray - all holidays, future, items, books, films, successes. There are crisis and defeats, lawlessness, no happiness, no love, all hate etc., in short - everything..."
Of course in writings of this author-satirist he looks through his crooked mirror at life around him. Why is it that in Zinoviev's outlook on life took such a turn when looking at the Soviet Union? Did he not see their cultural successes?
Zinoviev was born to a large peasant family and lived during the 1930's. After moving to Moscow they lived in an uncomfortable basement apartment and this started the hate towards the Soviet system. He became a student and then organized an underground terrorist group to plan the assassination of Stalin. He was arrested but was lucky that the Second World War started and he then served in the tank corps, also as a fighter pilot. After the war he finished his university studies and he then became a Doctor of Science in the realm of Logic. Because he continued his anti-Soviet activities, he was banished outside the borders of the USSR.
Was life in the Soviet Union so bad and horrific as A. Zinoviev wrote about during 1970's? Of course not! For over 70 years the country became unrecognizable in its achievements in all spheres of life, making very gigantic steps forward. From a backward country, living in practically feudalism; First World War destruction; the devastating civil war; then the horrendous destruction of the Great Patriotic War and the cost in millions of the Soviet Union's best sons and daughters; the cold war; the arms race... the Soviet Union and socialism became the savior of humanity. Education, culture, living conditions improved with each year. Workers became engineers, teachers, doctors, artists, marshals of the Soviet Army and Air Force… all sorts of opportunities were open as was the case with Zinoviev. All of these facts are masked and overlooked in these anti-Soviet books and socialism was made to look like caricatures.
Were there reasons for some criticisms? Of course there were some shortages. The dialectical unity was fighting many enemies, both internal and external.
What objective shortages became the stimulus for these dissidents? In spite of all the tremendous successes of the Soviet Union state, it was impossible to solve all the problems and reach the standard of life in the leading capitalist countries who became rich from World War II and their colonies while the Soviet people had to rebuild the devastation.
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Present "Independent" Ukraine |
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Do Not Rob - The State Does Not Want Any Competition!.. |
More capital outlays were needed but these had to go into the defense which was specifically instigated by imperialism and the arms race, in order to weaken the development of the economy of the USSR. This onslaught by Western Imperialism was meant to sow discord, raise unobtainable expectations for the Soviet people. Thus the outlay of large capital into construction was minimized, in spite of the greatest construction boom that any country of the world had undergone. "Living conditions form attitudes."
The working class produced heroically for the population, but still it was not enough. There were shortages to be sure, which were slowly being overcome. The desire to get better living standards individually went into conflict with the overall plans for all of the society. This led to some crime, robbery and also shady dealings by some section of the population, which in turn started the careerists on their way up the ladder inside the CPSU which was not being cleansed regularly as V.I. Lenin and J.V. Stalin demanded. These careerists managed to usurp the leadership of the CPSU and this led to the disintegration of the USSR.
In order to put their personal needs above those of the country, these elements joined others as "reformists."
Zinoviev and other dissidents, seeing these revisionists making their way up the government ladder, made him blind to the progress, enthusiasm and creative work of the masses.
In spite of all this, Zinoviev showed his love for the Motherland and, outside the borders of the USSR, he then characterized other dissidents as: "These fighters for law and truth are not saints by no means! They are well paid with dollars from foreign countries! They received money either in rubles or dollars!! Most of these dissidents that I worked with and met outside the USSR were not normal. The dissident movement was a lucrative business." He especially is bitter towards these rabid dissidents such as Sakharov, the "Great thinker?" This self-love was promoted by Western bourgeoisie in order to promote their "genius" and thus these dissidents were given the green light to be even more outrageous in all of their writings. The more outrageously they wrote, the more Western sources promoted them as "geniuses" and the more money they received!
When the counterrevolution took place, the curtain fell from his eyes and he started to see reality! This became a great surprise to all those when Zinoviev called "perestroika" nothing but a "catastroika". And when Yeltsin came to power, A. Zinoviev took a very good stand against his so-called "democracy" and "reforms."
I would like to show those people that read or agreed with any of the dissidents, what was written by Zinoviev now, after he visited Russia:
"I consider the Soviet period the best and the top summit of Russian history. Not being an apologist for communism, I consider this period unbelievable. Generations will pass, the children will look at this period and not believe the insurmountable obstacles that were overcome, the sheer magnitude of construction that took place and they shall not believe that dedicated human efforts could have achieved this. Yes the great events were had, although there were problems, there was sabotage, there was treason. In spite of all this, the colossal Soviet period is not matched in history."
A. Zinoviev now has become a defender of the Soviet Union. He told the newspaper reporters that "You should not spit at the past, because if you do that, we cannot take not even one step forward!" He now is a Soviet patriot. He now never stops proclaiming that "USSR - is my Motherland, I am a Soviet person!"
What transpired that changed this rabid anti-Soviet dissident? "Now I clearly see and Soviet people see as to what capitalism has brought the people. It's practically slave labor and the loss of all the gains that were achieved under Socialism. All this has now been seen by those who had a screen over their eyes."
The newspaper "Trud" had published this interview with former dissident Alexander Zinoviev. The newspaper asked Zinoviev about his mother when she was working on a collective farm if she would like to quit the collective and have her own property. She always said no. Why? Even with all of the problems at that time… she liked the progress, the standard of living, the happiness and the culture of the population.
The correspondent asked why A. Zinoviev became an anti-Stalinist and found himself in jail. He replied that: "...there was no system that I would have liked fully, but I now realize that under the Soviet system everyone had the equal opportunity to reach his of her goal." Then he confessed that "Socialism is a system that is as good if not better than capitalism." As to the question why he thinks that the Soviet system collapsed practically without a shot being fired, he replied: "It collapsed not because it was weak internally but because of internal traitors in league with a mighty foreign foe. This collapse was accepted without hardly a murmur because of the elite in the CPSU that sold out the interests of socialism. People to this day do not understand that not only communism collapsed, but Russia collapsed as a country. Here is where the biggest blow was given by world imperialism and internal enemies. Just look at the tempo of the loss of the population in Russia, the terrible growth of unemployment, the growth of all narcotics and also alcoholism… there is taking place a moral and intellectual death of the Soviet people - Russians in particular. This is the main aim of imperialism... the defeat of a potential competitor!"
It is a fact that the main cause of anti-Communism of these dissidents was and is the so-called "repression," even though it is now over 50 years that have passed. Zinoviev now hits this trump card of all of the present "democrats" at every opportunity that is now available to him: "Regarding the so-called repressions... today, at 77 years of age. I feel, that, they were necessary repressions of the enemies, because there was no other way to keep the country progressing with all these internal enemies sabotaging politically and economically all the plans that were made for the benefit of the people. Let us look at the present situation: millions of big and small robbers and traitors. Do you think that elements such as these present robbers did not exist after the 1917 October revolution? There were echelons of them, all supported from inside and outside by the enemies. Was not Trotsky a bitter enemy of the Soviet regime? Or Tukhachevsky? Was he not sick with Bonapartism? If they were victorious over us there would not have been the 20s or 30s. In 1939 I was arrested. And they were right to arrest me I was a terrorist. I feel now that Brezhnev was not too energetic and dedicated in his struggles with all the dissidents. They were today's fifth column!"
Zinoviev's attitude to Stalin has also undergone a radical change, even though he was a rabid anti-Stalinist. As opposed to other dissidents against the Soviet regime "I struggled against Stalin while he was alive. After Stalin's death I told my party meeting that a dead Lion could be overthrown even by a Donkey. I immediately was then called a Stalinist. I never concurred with Stalin's methods, correct as they were at that time. Let us just look at the terrible danger for the Soviet Union beginning with the Great Patriotic War. Massive retreats were in order, millions of war prisoners. If there were no Joseph Stalin, Moscow would have fallen. Millions of us would have been liquidated by fascism, and the rest would have become slaves.
As to the question as to what he foresees for Russia, he said "I do not see a bright future now. The question is of life or death of Russia and the Russian people. Our enemy is very strong, clever but has absolutely no conscience. Our total losses now have already surpassed the losses in the Great Patriotic War(!!!) and the question is this, when are we going to realize the truth and start the struggler for our resurrection?"
Is there anything else that we can expect? Zinoviev replied: "In life many things happen that are unpredictable. During the last war, many times things looked hopeless and no light was seen at the end of the tunnel. But we did win a victory. Everything depends of the will and courage to fight to the last. In this I see the chance of our people to struggle and live and take our rightful place on this planet!"
The opening of the eyes and understanding of Alexander Zinoviev is a lesson for those who had a one-sided outlook on the Soviet Union or the communist ideology. As was stated by Zinoviev: "We have to differentiate the objective and subjective points of view - sometimes they tragically go apart, but in history everything depends on logic only!" From a fighter against the Soviet State, A. Zinoviev has become a defender, and was able to see the objective meaning of the historical rising of the Soviet people, the first to have a society of workers and peasants. Now he calls for a struggle to defend the working class from complete annihilation.
We greet Alexander Zinoviev. 'We welcome him to our ranks!
May other former dissidents and their hangers-on also see the light of truth!
© Copyright by Philip E. Panaggio P. O. Box 85, Lehigh Acres, FL 33970-0085, USA
