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major role in the Soviet world view
of things - as, of course, it does for
arch-rival United States, the self–
proclaimed champion of the free,
capitalist world.
Despite the warmer atmosphere
of détente and the new tradition of
annual summitry, the ideological
gulfbetween East and West remains
fundamental/y
as wide as ever. The
fact is, no two social and economic
systems could be further poles apart
(by their very natures competitive
and mutualJy exclusive) than com–
munism and capitalism. To speak of
a "convergence" between commu–
nism and capitalism, as sorne think–
ers in the West have dreamed of, is,
to be blunt, sheer folly. In the first
place, Soviet leaders, not to speak of
the vast majority of Russian and
other Soviet peoples themselves,
have no desire to see their system
fundamentalJy changed, or even
partially diluted with "alien" ideas.*
lmprovements
within
the system are
expected, of course, but not a
change
of
the system.
Marxist-Leninist ideals are as sac–
rosanct within the Soviet Union as
George Washington, the Constitu–
tion and the Bill of Ríghts are
within the United States. For a So–
viet citizen to deviate from the prin–
cipies laid down by Lenin is
virtually the same as for a Christian
to denounce Jesus Christ.
Past War Colors
Everything
Nevertheless, ideology, as infiu–
entíal as it is, is by no means the
sole ingredient comprising the
unique Soviet world perspeclive.
Many in the West, in fact , have
tended to overstress the role of
Marxist-Leninist philosophy while
underplaying the perhaps even
more fundamental requirements of
the Soviet nation-state.
•l esa common mistake in the Westem world to refer
to the Soviet Un ion as " Russia.. and its entire
population as " Russians:· Ethnic Russians. however.
though they excrt thc major intluence within the
country. comprise o nly slightly ove r half - 53.4
percent - of the to tal population o f the U.S.S.R.
Accordin g to Sovie t demographers. therc a re 14
other maj or nationalities and scoresof sma ller e thnic
gro ups - more than 100 nationaliti es in all.
4
The most fundamental need of all
is obviously that of national de–
fense. It becomes quickly obvious to
a visitor from the West that ever
since the great holocaust of World
War II, Soviet authorities have de–
termined to do everything in their
power to prevent a recurrence of
such manifold suft'ering - and to
protect their homeland against real
and imagined threats arising in any
area. The Soviet Union not only
maintains the world's largest uni–
formed army but also supports it
with an intricate substructure of
military and civil defense training.
Youngsters play organized war
games as subteen-agers in the na–
tionwide Young Pioneers (similar to
the Boy Scouts) organization. Mili–
tary preparedness continues in the
Young Communists (Komsomol).
Adults are expected to participate in
civil defense classes, wilh special
emphasis on defense against mass–
scale annihilation weapons.
Even in their entertainment the
Soviet people of today are not
allowed to forget the trials of the
past. Most of the movie houses still
feature new films about what would
seem to be a very overworked sub–
ject - the battles to defend the
motherland against Nazi invaders.
To me, it all seemed rather
st range at first - but then I live in a
nation which was spared the direct
blows ofWorld War U. U.S. men in
both world wars fought "overseas."
Buffered on both sides by huge
ocean moats, America's cities were
spared the camage and destruction
that afilicted so much of the Soviet
Union and other parts of the civ–
ilized world.
A Monument to lnhumanity
One doesn' t have to travel very
far inside the Soviet Union to be
brought face-to-face with rerninders
of the last great war. Many Soviet
cities in the western part of the
country have their own memorial
monuments or tombs to the
unknown soldier, often with rifie–
toting teen-age boys standing per–
petua! guard. The memorials are
nearly always decoraced with
wreaths of fiowers, continually re–
supplied by the bouquets discarded
from wedding parties - a rather
cbarming Soviet tradition.
One particular memorial will al–
ways stand out in my memory. It is
located on the outskirts of Lenin–
grad, near the sprawling housing
developments so characteristic of
the newer parts of the city. It is the
Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery,
fi–
nal resting place of from 500,000 to
800,000 Leningraders (no one really
knows the exact figure), all of them
victims of the 2'll-year siege thrown
up around that great city by the
invading Nazi army in September
1941. Most of the victims perished
from starvation and enemy shelling
during the terrible winter of 1941-42
after the German noose around the
city was drawn tight.
Few Americans realize that as
many people ultimately died in
Leningrad alone - nearly a million
and a half - as tbe United States
has Jost in all tbe wars throughout
its history.
Generations of Mourners
We visited the Piskarevsky Me–
morial around noontime on May 8,
an exceptional time to do so, it
turned out. l t was the day just be–
fore Victory Day, the Soviet na–
tional holiday commemorating the
end of the great war. People of all
ages were strolling up and down the
long central walkway of the somber,
yet strangely beautiful, garden-like
cemetery.
Along both sides of the walkway
stretched hillock after hillock of
mass graves. The plain stone at the
foot of each grassy knoll simply
noted the year in which the interred
had died, with the additional mark–
ing of a hammer-and-sickle for civil–
ians and a star for mili tary
personnel.
Near the massive commemorative
wall at the front of the cemetery -
with its legendary inscription, "Let
no one forget, let nothing be forgot–
ten" - groups of young school
(Conlinued on page 6)
PLAIN
TRUTH
October-November
1974