Mental Gaps in Our Thinking About Russia; L.E. Dobriansky

MENTAL THINKING GAPS IN ABOUT OUR RUSSIA ALTHOUGH we have dissolved much of the fog in OUf thinking about Russia during the past ten years, our concept of this global menace still remains distorted by a series of assiduously cultivated myths. In fact, I have just now momentarily nourished one of these myths by saying "our thinking about Russia" when I should have referred to the "Soviet Union." This is the most common myth: using "Russia" and "the Soviet Union" interchangeably as if they were the same territory and the same people. It suits the communists just fine when we commit this errOf. Russia is only one of the fifteen entities that comprise the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. But as the "boss" nation of the communist federation it strives to make the world believe that the other nations are natural members of one big Russian family whose papa sits in the Kremlin. This is not just a semantic quibble. Moscow wants us Dr. Dobriansky, Professor 6f Economics at Georgetown University, is well known as a writer and lecturer on communism and Soviet policy.

419 420 LEV E. DOBRIANSKY to forget that its empire began with the gun-point cap ture, between 1918 and 1922, of over fourteen non-Rus sian nations that differ, often markedly, from Russia proper in language, race, history, culture, and religion. Simply stated, these nations are no more Russian than the Irish are English, or than the Japanese are Chinese. They were first subjugated by the Czars, then more ter ribly resubjugated by Lenin and Stalin, and are still in captivity under Khrushchev. When they are misidentified as Russian, its serves Moscow's purposes because the term Russia by-passes the fact of a Soviet empire, and obscures that empire's in ternal problems and inherent weaknesses. Moreover, when we call the people of the many non~Russian na tions Russians, we in effect ignore their legitimate feel ings of national pride and loyalty, and we appear to approve of their forcible absorption into the communist totalitarian empire.

But even more important, the acceptance of this first myth conditions people to an easy and often unquestion ing belief in other myths that build up the false face the Kremlin shows to the world. A Federal Union For instance, the Kremlin communists and their apolo gists in America have for years spread the fiction that the U. S. S. R. is a federal union of states very much like the United States of America. This spurious claim is ob viously an attempt to equate Russia's armed conquest MENTAL GAPS IN OUR THINKING ABOUT RUSSIA 421 and forced incorporation of other nations with our union of fifty states and territories that freely willed their own federalization. Ours is a single and freely united nation; the Soviet Union is a multinational empire held together by totalitarian brutality, but disguised as a fed eral union. This myth is unwittingly encouraged by the failure of our press and news commentators continually to em phasize that the Soviet Union is a vast and brutally forged empire within an even more wickedly wrought communist empire. Prominent Americans on occasion perpetuate this myth of a Soviet Union of freely feder alized states when they refer to Ukraine as Russia's Texas and compare Byelorussia to Massachusetts!

Part of the price we pay for this thoughtlessness is our failure to convince millions in Africa, Asia, Central and South America that we are not the imperialistic and colonial monster that the communist empire builders charge us as being. The N ation,ality Problem The Soviet Union's myth of its being a free federal union similar to the United States is supported by what may be called its population myth. This is expressed in such terms as "the national minorities" and "the nation ality problem" in the Soviet Union, with the suggestion that it parallels the U. S. minorities situation but is handled with more justice and wisdom, and with much less friction.

422 LEV E. DOBRIANSKY Here again we see the hand of masterful propagan dists, uninhibited by obligations to the truth, turning gullible minds away from the fact of the captive non Russian nations in the Soviet Union, and toward the scarlet fiction that some 214 million Russians lovingly stand together under the hammer and sickle. The facts contradict this Soviet-created illusion. About 54 per cent of the U.S.S.R.'s population is non-Russian. In fourteen of the Soviet republics non-Russian natives are a majority of their population. Only a propagandist indifferent to truth would call these nations, with their native majorities, "national minorities." They are na tions with distinctive cultures and histories, one of which goes back 4,000 years. But by referring to them as "na tional minorities" Moscow further diverts attention from the empire it rules and the colonialism it practices as a fixed policy.

It is grimly amusing to note that Karl Marx called the Czarist empire "a prison-house of nations" -an even more appropriate epithet for the system that today pays lip loyalty to communism's founder. Totalitarian Russian Imperialism Versus International Communism The free world's acceptance of these Soviet myths is indicated by another common error we make-one the Kremlin totalitarians are content to leave uncorrected. That is, the mistake many anti-Soviet individuals and agencies make when they rebuke other fervent opponents MENTAL GAPS IN OUR THINKING ABOUT RUSSIA 423 of the Soviet Union who customarily assert that the free world's enemy is "totalitarian Russian imperialism." The burden of their protest against this characterization is that our real enemy is international communism, and that the term "totalitarian imperialism" lays the crimes of communism on the Russian nation and people, rather than on the Marxist ideology.

Moscow has no quarrel with this argument. It permits her to continue accumulating slave colonies behind the fa«;ade of Marxist historical materialism that has no rela tionship to the Soviet empire. When we attack Soviet communism as the sole enemy, Khrushchev has only to reply that the "imperialist West" is opposed to the con cept of soviets, which are no more than representative workers' councils. But when we point to Russia's history of imperialism -during the Czars under the banners of the Third Rome and Pan Slavism, and since 1918 under the guise of communism-then Khrushchev can do little more than rage impotently, as he has most notably done when we celebrated Captive Nations Week. Moreover, when we speak of Russian totalitarian im perialisn"t and refer to its colonialism and the certainty of ultimate Moscow control and empire absorption, then we are dealing with facts that have flesh and blood mean ing in the world of today. Restless millions of have-nots are more easily aroused against imperialism and colonial ism-which they think they have experienced and under stand-than against communism, which they do not know or understand.

424 LEV E. DOBRIANSKY The Big Brother Myth In order to solidify its empire and lull the suspicions of newly acquired colonies, Moscow has for years cir culated the Big-Brother myth: the figment that the U.S.S.R. is an ever-loving brotherhood, with the Rus sians themselves always the benevolent big brothers. However, there are some false notes in this sweet song: for example, that the non-Russian nations in the Soviet Union do not want to be independent, and that they are grateful to the Russians for whatever they have of well being. In order to make this campaign more plausible and palatable the Kremlin ordered a rewriting of the early histories of Ukraine, White Ruthenia, and Mus covy (Russia). Moscow not only compiles dishonest rec ords of its own history, but reaches far back to distort and twist the chronicles of earlier times to fit its prop aganda. There is, of course, no special brotherly relationship between the Soviet Union's non-Russian nations and Russia. Nor do they recognize the Russians as their bene factors. In fact, they know that Russia would be a second rate power if deprived of its economically rich captive nations.

Although the big brother song is crooned primarily to those within the Soviet Union, it is also yodeled in the free world to discourage us from thinking of Kremlin power as a totalitarian empire without precedent in his tory, extending from the Danube to the Pacific. I t is no coincidence that the Soviet myths we have MENTAL GAPS IN OUR THINKING ABOUT RUSSIA 425 been discussing complement and support each other. They are carefully devised and skillfully circulated in ventions of propaganda technicians who employ truth only when it serves their purposes. It Began Before 1940 Moreover, when we fall into these several propaganda traps, we often then unwittingly do some myth-making of our own in behalf of the Kremlin. For example, we find ourselves dating the beginning of Red Russian im perialism as of the 1940's when Moscow seized the Baltic States and then moved into Central Europe. We point to the capture of these "satellite" nations and suggest that a just and enduring peace could be established if the Iron Curtain were pushed back to the Soviet Union's prewar borders. Thus we imply that the Soviet Union is truly Russian, a freely organized federation of some 214 million Russians and some foreign language minori ties such as are found in our own country. The Rus sians' record of imperialist aggression between 1917 and 1940 is consequently ignored. Russia's basic empire goes unremarked, while its captives-greater in number than the total "satellite" population-perhaps conclude the world has forgotten them.

Endorsement by Implication Finally, the myth of peaceful coexistence between the Soviet Union and the free world amounts to little more 426 LEV E. DOBRIANSKY than agreement that the Kremlin shall be permitted to strengthen its empire and perfect its plans for the sub version and eventual conquest of the free world. Peace ful coexistence is a form of negative support of Russian totalitarian imperialism. The alternative is not war, but the development of a relentless spirit of revolution against Russian imperial rule and for the independence of the captive nations both within the Soviet Union and the more recently acquired "satellite" nations. We can best engender this spirit of revolt against Red tyranny by continually rededicating ourselves to the great traditions that have made us a powerful nation of free men. However incomplete may be our achieve ment of ideal freedom, nevertheless we still stand be fore the world-and particularly before the captive world -as an eloquent example of freedom and its rewards.

When we stand on this foundation-and resolve it shall not be undermined-we can in all truth and consistency reaffirm our national tradition that all the peoples of the world have the God-given right to determine their own destiny, free of external coercion or interference. And inherent in this tradition is its logical extension that every individual has the basic right freely to choose his way of life, without dictation from government. This inspiration, example, and goal will always re main our major contribution to the freedom of other peoples, and whatever else we do for them should be done within and as an expression of these principles. Peaceful coexistence, a term first used by the wily MENTAL GAPS IN OUR THINKING ABOUT RUSSIA 427 Lenin, is a Kremlin cold war propaganda prop with great slogan value because it appeals to our yearning for peace. But since the phrase properly embraces a free and liberal exchange of cultures, ideas, and informa tion, it is impossible of true realization. The Iron Cur tain cannot be lifted without endangering the survival of the Russian totalitarian empire. And that is all the Kremlin is interested in preserving and expanding.

It is instructive to observe that Moscow attempts no defense of its brazen colonialism, but instead shifts the spotlight from itself to others by shamelessly demanding, as it did in December 1960, that the United Nations call for an end to colonialism. This from a power that holds at least 22 nations-totaling over 214 million souls-in direct, iron-bound captivity. And this from a centrally controlled international con spiracy that plots the subjugation of still more nations, while the free world since the end of World War II has added to its rolls over 35 former colonies, protectorates, and other dependent areas-with a total population of 800 million people-most of them helped to national independence by the Western powers upon whom they were previously dependent. Thus, as the Western nations abandon colonialism, Russian imperialism retains all of its captives and hun gers for more. When the world realizes-as it must for its salvation the colossal hypocrisy that shields Moscow's malevolent ambitions, then we may hope for an end of the terror that bestrides this little star on which we live.