This classic of political writing features essays by some of the brilliant intellectual minds from the 1930s through the mid-1950s. The studies include those of Arthur Koestler, Ignazio Silone, Andre Gide, Richard Wright, Louis Fischer and Stephen Spender. All had joined (some for only a few days) their local Communist parties and all had rejected it for a variety of reasons. Each sought to find a solution to the problems they faced, such as the fall of Capitalism (often predicted, none accurately yet), artistic freedom, someone to stand against Fascism, the end of racism, etc. Each found that while the theory was supposedly “scientific”, the practical application of the theory in fact worked against the solutions they sought and were run by humans with the same emotions, fears, etc. that have always existed
As an example, Andre Gide went to the Soviet Union disillusioned with his success in France and sought a “purer” world in which to create his writings. He was given carte balance in the Soviet Union at a time when most visitors were kept closely in hand. At first, he was overwhelmed by his lodgings, the book contracts, the banquets and he proclaimed that the Soviet Union was the nation most friendly to creative artists. As he traveled, however, he began to see the starvation in the countryside, the empty food stores and the shabby clothes of those who were not in the banquets. He came to realize that he was being used; not as he was used in the West, where everyone gathered around him to enjoy some of his fame and success, but rather he was being used to present an image of a nation that starved its own citizens while it built up it’s military to oppress others.
Richard Wright was another individual who was quickly disillusioned by the Party in the United States. Born the son of a poor share-cropper in Mississippi, Wright moved to Chicago to escape the Jim Crow laws of the South. Instead of freedom he found a system ruled by blind obedience to Party orders and rules founded on dietetical materialism which could change course literally day by day and followers who were expected to obey the newest Party line without a word of discussion. To even ask a question of the new direction was enough to have one ousted from the Party.
Each writer in this book shared his disillusionment with Communism; with the theory, the practice, the mindset. They rebelled as individuals who believed in freedom, but a freedom based on respect for the individual. While the societies they lived in had abuses, they came to realize that the golden words of Marx and Engels, when practiced by Lenin and Stalin were turned into the tightest bonds to stifle the individual.
A classic book originally published in 1950. Reading it makes one realize that without a knowledge of history, each generation will be forced to travel down that grim road of trial and error, costing themselves time and effort that could be better used during their precious time on earth.
