The Soviet Cultural Scene 1956–1957, ed. W.Z. Laqueur and G. Lichtheim

[p034] The Soviet Cultural Scene 1956-1957, ed. W. Z. Laqueur and G. Lichtheim (Atlantic Books, 27s. 6d.} A RECENT correspondence in The Times spotlighted the fact that hardly any children in our schools are learning Russian, although it is now universally acknowledged that Russian is one of the key world languages for science and literature. This means that there are very few people in Britain today who can read and study the original text of Russian books, papers and magazines. Unfortunately, of these few, some tend to be apologists for whatever the Soviet government dces, while another group tends to denigrate whatever it does. In spite of these limitations, from time to time a number of useful commentaries and translations do appear. Both Birmingham and Glasgow Universities publish quar.erly journals which frequently show an admirably objective approach to Soviet affairs. The Society for Cultural Relations publishes some useful translations from original Soviet sources in its various specialized Bulletins. The “Congress for Cultural Freedom’ obviously belongs to the group which finds it difficult to see anything positive in the USSR But making due allowance for this initial negative bias, it too has produced some useful commentaries, especially on litera- ture and the arts, where little other material is available. Recently, a collection of articles from its quart:rly review has been assembled and published as a book. This anthology covers a particularly interesting period—the ‘thaw’ of early 1956 and the reaction at the end of the year and in 1957. The series of thirty articles traces the conflict between the liberalizing tendencies unleashed by the death of Stalin and the Twentieth Congress. and the old apparatus of control. They deal with literature, painting, music, history, philosophy, religion. psychology, sociology, education and finally the im- pact of events in eastern Europe and Asia. There are no straight translations but the articles are almost entirely based on analysis of published Soviet sources, with a good many quotations. The book confirms beyond any shadow of doubt that critical attitudes towards dogmatic orthodoxy are very wide- spread amongst the Soviet intellectuals and youth. In various ways the critics are moving towards a position of toleration of conflicting trends and viewpoints in the arts and sciences as the necessary climate for creative work. Even though this movement has been temporarily checked in the USSR (and in China and east Europe) it remains a most hopeful long- term trend in these societies. This book succeeds in giving a vivid picture of certain aspects of these new tendencies. H. STEVENS Graphic Journalist Pecple Like Us. Drawings of South Africa and Rhodesia, by Paul Hogarth (Dobson. 12s. 6d.) PAUL HOGARTH’S intention in publishing this book is obscure. It adds very little to our knowledge of Africa. It is a very thin book to capture very much of a vast and explosive Situation. It is too queasy and sentimental to convert the fringes of imperialism to a benevolent paternalism. And if it was merely to publicize flogarth’s private vision before he packed up his materials and retired for sundowners to the bwana’s bungalow. this is unilluminating. The ‘committed’ artist is frozen at a point of observation. not involvement. His Africans have the detached air of clinica] specimens, lonely. silent and still, lost in meditative pessimism. The diary notes which accompany the drawings reinforce the observer's detachment: one is on the remote fringes of con- flict. The African is out there in a harsh world of which one disapproves, but not so much that one can refuse the hospitality of ‘a friendly. generous couple whose house was alive with African servants who were ordered about like soldiers on parade’. The only explanation must be that the Pretorian whites ‘were farmers, not realists. Somehow it had all got out of line.” But Hogarth is not a theorist but a graphic journalist. His drawings remain to give us a certain feeling of white Africa. 159

[p035] LABOUR REVIEW The Africans stand in their own despair, drab, hard and waiting, passively bearing the white man’s burden. They lack depth and emotion, but some still stand out of the blur of crayon as a challenge (notably, the Natal migratory labourers). Hogarth’s reporting is non-committal, superficial in its brevity; so much so that it cannot sink below the skin of a people to the level where ‘the inherent dignity and nobility of the African’ is mere claptrap, the excuse to weep and do nothing. The clearest perception comes where Hogarth is on known ground, the gold-mine shift boss, the whites in their Salisbury club or on the segregated beach at Port Elizabeth. Then comes a lightness of touch and economy of line that redeem the artist, catching brutality at rest. The Africans remain outside, unknown. NIGEL HARRIS Authentic Account The Doors are Closing, by Gyérgy Sebestyen (Angus and Robertson, 13s. 6d.) WHEN I opened the parcel and saw yet another book with a black jacket, lurid lettering and torn red-white-and-green flags, my heart sank. Yet another eye-witness account of the Hungarian uprising. I thought, probably written up and embroidered with un-Hungarian clichés by some helpful journalist. But this is a novel, written by a young man who was already a practised writer before he left Hungary; he was cultural editor of the paper Magyar Nemzet which, like all other papers, passed over to the side of the uprising and became a vehicle for its ideas. Gyérgy Sebestyen’s account of the events of October 1956 is authentic; he is able, by using the novel form. to bring out more varied moods, and trace more persona! histories, than he could have done in a straight factual narrative, and he succeeds in conveying the bitter tang of Budapest life. The hero, Zoltan. who has been expelled from the Univer- sity, is unidealized; he is prey to a general disgust with life until he is drawn into the enthusiasm of the uprising. But to tell a love story linked with shattering historical events is a task demanding genius. One or the other will seem super- fluous, a mere back-cloth, unless the very greatest penetration into human history and human character is brought to bear on them at the same time. In this case, it is the political scene which holds the attention. One of the best episodes is the journey to a distant village to arrange paper supplies for printing, and the meeting with the sturdy Calvinist pea- sants. Few people in this country realize that anything was going on in the villages. A novel written from the peasant’s point of view, or one reflecting the real ferment of ideas in the literary world and the Universities, could be of the highest interest, and I wish that Gyorgy Sebestyen had carried his story further along either of these paths. DORA SCARLETT Ireland’s Martyr The Crime Against Europe. Writings and Poems of Roger Casement. Collected and edited by Herbert O. Mackey. (C. J. Fallon, Ltd, Dublin. 10s. 6d.) WHAT can one say of Casement beyond what he said him- self? ‘One who never hurt a human being, and whose heart was always compassionate and pitiful for the grief of others _- + I feel just as if they going to kill a boy. For I feel like a boy—~and my hands so free from blood and my heart 160 December 1958 always so compassionate and pitiful that I cannot comprehend how anyone wants to hang me .. . These artificial and un- natural wars, prompted by greed of power. are the source of all misery now destroying mankind ... the old, old story— yet in spite of all, the truth and right lives on in the hearts of the brave and lowly .. - He was a chivalrous and saintly man caught in the prongs of a deadly mechanism he was too ‘compassionate and pitiful’ to understand. The evidence of any overt acts of treason te the British Crown—allegiance to which he had. of course, abrogated—was dubious; but even admitting a _ British political necessity for his execution, the despicable blacken- ing of his character before and after death, and the departure from age-old tradition in treason cases by refusing to deliver his body to his relatives, remains as a scandalous and shameful example of sheer wanton hatred which can never be lived down. There is no possible remedy but authoritative denial of the slander and restoration of the remains, for buriai in the plot in Murlough churchyard in the county of Antrim that has awaited them these forty years. From the time of his imprisonment Casement was prepar- ing—as he had for some time intended—to be admitted to the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. of which he was a baptized member. The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster demanded of him a public apology for any scandal caused by his acts, private and public, as a condition of reconciliation. To this he at first agreed, but next morning withdrew the apology, seeing that it might be used by those engaged in slandering him. He therefore received no Sacrament until in articulo mortis. A sincere man. a pious believer—and one whom the Catholic chaplain at the prison describes as ‘a noble, gentle, lonely soul-—does not refuse to confess his true sins at such a moment, nor does he cut himself off from the Sacraments for any reason of expediency. It is obvious that suck a self-denial from such a man can only mean refusal to contribute in any way to falsehood. and that should be in itself enough to end the slander once and for all. It is curious that the poems given here do not include one of which much was made some months ago—a poem on “love”, which to those accustomed to Irish patriot verse is pretty clearly love of country. and on the moral dilemma. not of bodily love but of civil war. Was Mr Mackey nervous of it? He need not be. Or does he consider it of doubtful origin? Unfortunately. this is a limited edition and not very readily obtainable in this country. It deserves a wide readership. S.F.H. Note The Editors of Labour Review regret that it has been possible to produce only five issues of the magazine in 1958, instead of six issues. We thought it important to concentrate on the preduction of material of immediate importance in the class struggle, particularly during the bus strike and in the preparations for the national industrial rank-and-file Conference. Two pamphlets for mass sale were issued during the year, William Hunter’s ‘Hands Off the “Blue Union”! and Brian Behan’s ‘Socialists and the Trade Unions’. We are sure readers will agree that these efforts have been a valuable contribution to the develop- ment of the Marxist movement in British industry.

[p036] Authors ANDERSON, Noel Dogmatism and Revisionism 58 Science and Socialism 128 ANDREWS, K. R. King and Commons (review) 29 Manchester Massacre (review) 64 Victorian Historian (review) 114 ATKINS, George Contradictions in Freud 27 B.P. Shock for Imperialists (review) 110 BANDA, Michael Marxism and the Algerian Revolution BEHAN, Brian Socialists and the Trade Unions 98 BRYAN, P. Moscow in Wartime CS. Spotlight on a Science (review) 94 CADOGAN, Peter . Stalinism and the Defeat of the 1945-51 Labour Governments 125 37 116 The Origins of Sectarianism 146 COLLINS, Henry First International (review) 110 CRUICKSHANK, Gordon Pat Dooley: a Tribute 90 DANIELS, John Class and Education (review) 30 Behind the Sputnik (review) 115 DEUTSCHER, Isaac The Irony of History in Stalinism 132 DOCUMENTS Pat Dooley’s Letters 59 Rejected by the New Reasoner 92 A Charter of Workers’ Demands 152 DOOLEY, Pat Pat Dooley’s Letters 59 EDITORIALS Labour and Leadership 1 Wages and the Bomb: a Single Front 33 An Unreasonable Reasoner 34 The Murder of Imre Nagy 65 The Victory of Charles de Gaulle 67 Strike Strategy 70 Three Conferences 97 Rank and File on the Move 129 EKIOMENESEKENIGHA Ghana's Struggle (review) 109 EVANS, Stanley Tyranny Unnoticed (review) 116 FRYER, Peter Freedom of the Individual 119 GALE, G. Holding Labour back (review) 157 GELDEREN, C. van Caribbean Colony (review) 63 GIRLING, Frank The Thunderer Regrets 27 GOLDRING, Douglas Limelit Decade (review) 114 Rejected by the New Statesman 154 GRACCHUS Child of Thermidor (review) 31 GRAINGER, Martin Freudian Blinkers 91 Diplomat’s Diary (review) 158 : i t i i { H GUTHRIE, Tony Persuasion, not Lecturing HARRIS, Nigel Graphic Journalist (review) HUNTER, William The Dockers and Trade Union Democracy Marxists in the Second World War J.A. Clearing up Confusion (review) J.C. Radiation Hazards (review) 5.C.D. In Rakosi’s Jail (review) JM. Pacifist ‘Realism’ (review) KEMP, Tom ‘New Class’? Valuable Signposts (review) LAUCHLAN, John Biography of Bessie (review) M.H. A Study of Personality (review) MACDONALD, Alan The Pasternak Affair McGOWAN, P. (trans.) Music from Afar MARKS, Louis He ‘Confessed’ (review) MARSHALL, John Empiricist Philosophy and Empiricist Habits of Thinking 23, British Empiricism and Natural Science MARSHALL, T. Sterile Economics (review) MARTIN, Henry Mission to Sheffield (review) MERCER, Tom The Crisis, the Budget and the Workers PAPERT, Seymour The Logic of Apartheid PARK, Trevor Young Hungarian (review) PEARCE, Brian The Early Years of the CPGB The British Stalinists and the Moscow Trials ‘Export of Revolution’. 1917-1924 Stalin’s Fulminations (review) Useful but Shallow (review) POTTER, Bob London Busmen in Battle PRYNN, David Labour Leaders and Socialism REDMAN, Joseph See PEARCE, Brian S.FH. Enjoying Novels (review) Ireland’s Martyr (review) SCARLETT, Dora Authentic Account (review) SEDLER, Ronald Reforming the Law (review) _ SHERWOOD, Robert Why No New Ideas? (review) Stalinist Chauvinism (review) SLAUGHTER, Cliff Society and the Aged (review) 58 159 139 158 29 115 83 lil 30 137 155 94 53 33 73 86 95 11 44 104 111 156 71 90 113 160 160 63 32 158 $1 Religion and Social Revolt Race Riots: the Socialist Answer SMITH, Cyril Against Superstition (review) SOPER, Donald O. Church and H-Bomb (review) STEVENS, H. Culture in Russia (review) STEVENS, Jock Workers will Fight (review) VEALL, Donald Crime in Croydon (review) WORSLEY, Peter Labour on the Nile (review) YOUNG, James D. Labour Leaders and Socialism 77 134 116 157 159 157 94 95 90 Subjects ALGERIA Marxism and the Algerian Revolution, by Michael Banda COLOUR BAR Race Riots: the Socialist Answer, by Cliff Slaughter COMMUNIST PARTY The Early Years of the CPGB, by Joseph Redman The British Stalinists and the Moscow Trials, by Joseph Redman Persuasion, not Lecturing, by Tony Guthrie Pat Dooley’s Letters Pat Dooley: a Tribute, by Gordon Cruickshank Stalinism and the Defeat of the 1945-51 Labour Governments, by Peter Cadogan ECONOMICS The Crisis, the Budget and the Workers, by Tom Mercer FRANCE The Victory of Charles de Gaulle HUNGARY The Murder of Imre Nagy INDUSTRY Labour and Leadership The Dockers and Trade Union Democracy, by William Hunter Wages and the Bomb: a Single Front Strike Strategy London Busmen in Battle, by Bob Potter Three Conferences Socialists and the Trade Unions, by Brian Behan Rank and File on the Move A Charter of Workers’ Demands LABOUR PARTY Labour and Leadership Wages and the Bomb: a Single Front Labour Leaders and Socialism, by David Prynn and James D. Young MARXISM Dogmatism and Revisionism, by Noel Anderson Rejected by the New Reasoner The Origins of Sectarianism, by Peter Cadogan MARXIST MOVEMENT Labour and Leadership An Unreasonable Reasoner Three Conferences Socialists and the Trade Unions, by Brian Behan Marxists in the Second World War, by William Hunter PHILOSOPHY Empiricist Philosophy and Empiricist Habits of Thinking, by John Marshall British Empiricism and Natural Science, by John Marshall Freedom of the Individual, by Peter Fryer PRESS The Thunderer Regrets, by Frank Girling 37 134 1] 58 59 90 125 73 67 65 33 70 71 97 98 129 152 33 90 58 92 146 34 97 98 139 23, 53 53 119 27

[p037] TSYCHO-ANALYSIS Contradictions in Freud, by George Atkins Freudian Blinkers, by Martin Grainger RELIGION Religion and Social Revolt, by Cliff Slaughter RUSSIA The British Stalinists and the Moscow Trials, by Joseph Redman “New Class’?, by Tom Kemp ‘Export of Revolution’, 1917-1924, by Brian Pearce The Irony of History in Stalinism, by Isaac Deutscher The Pasternak Affair, by Alan MacDonald SCIENCE Science and Socialism, by G. N. Anderson SOUTH AFRICA The Logic of Apartheid, by Seymour Papert WAR Wages and the Bomb: a Single Front Marxists in the Second World War, by William Hunter Books Reviewed AMAMOO, J. G. The New Ghana (Ekiomenesekenigha) BECK, William S. Modern Science and the Nature of Life (C.S.) BONE, Edith Seven Years Solitary (J.C.D.) BRONDSTED, H. V. The Atomic Age and Our Biological Future (J.C.) CARR, E. H. Socialism in One Country, 1924-1926, vol. i (Isaac Deutscher) CLARK, G. Kitson The Kingdom of Free Men (Stanley Evans) COHN, Nor man The Pursuit of the Millennium (Cliff Slaughter) CONNELL, John