Debates on the Future of Communism

233 Pages·1991·20.832 MB·English

by  Vladimir Tismaneanu, Judith Shapiro (eds.)

DEBATES ON THE FUTURE OF COMMUNISM
A FOREIGN POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE BOOK
This book is sponsored by the Foreign Policy Research Institute in
Philadelphia. Founded in 1955, the Institute is an independent non
profit organization devoted to research on issues affecting the na
tional interests of the United States.
Also by Vladimir Tismaneanu
THE CRISIS OF MARXIST IDEOLOGY IN EASTERN
EUROPE: THE POVERTY OF UTOPIA
IN SEARCH OF CIVIL SOCIETY: INDEPENDENT PEACE
MOVEMENTS IN THE SOVIET BLOC
REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA
(with MichaelS. Radu)
Also by Judith Shapiro
COLD WINDS, WARM WINDS
INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN CHINA TODAY
(with liang Heng)
LIFECHANGES: HOW WOMEN CAN MAKE COURAGEOUS
CHOICES
(with Joan Hatch Lennox)
RETURN TO CHINA: A SURVIVOR OF THE CULTURAL
REVOLUTION REPORTS ON CHINA TODAY
(with liang Heng)
SON OF THE REVOLUTION
(with liang Heng)
Debates on the Future
of Communism
Edited by
Vladimir Tismaneanu
Senior Fe l/ow
Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia
Assistant Professor of Politics
University of Maryland
and
Judith Shapiro
Resident Scholar
Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia
Lecturer in Sociology (Adjunct)
University of Pennsylvania
Villanova University
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-11785-7 ISBN 978-1-349-11783-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-11783-3
@ Foreign Policy Research Institute 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991 978-0-333-53188-4
All rights reserved. For infonnation, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth A venue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1991
ISBN 978-0-312-05220-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Debates on the future of communism I edited by Vladimir Tismaneanu and
Judith Shapiro.
p. em.
"A Foreign Policy Research Institute book."
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-312-05220-1
1. Communism-1945- 2. Communist countries-Politics and
government. 3. Communist countries-Economic conditions.
4. Communism-Forecasting. I. Tismaneanu, Vladimir. II. Shapiro,
Judith, 1953- .
HX44.D37 1991
335.43'09'048--dc20 90--8640
CIP
Contents
Notes on the Contributors vm
Introduction xt
PART I STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF 1
COMMUNIST STATES TODAY
Communism's Strength: Democracy's 3
Weakness
Ferenc Feher
2 Sources of Strength and Stress 10
Mihailo Markovic
3 From Paralysis to Self-Destruction 19
Carlos Franqui
4 Sandinismo and War: Dynamics of 23
Militarism in Revolutionary Nicaragua
Humberto Belli
5 A Dangerous Civilization 34
Eduard Kuznetsov
6 Crocodiles Cannot Fly 38
Alexander Zinoviev
PART II CAN COMMUNIST STATES REFORM? 43
7 The Paradigm of the Boots 45
Miklos Haraszti
8 Toward Post-Totalitarianism 50
Agnes Heller
9 Socialist Democracy: A Question of Survival 56
Franz Loeser
10 Castro's Cuba in the Gorbachev Era 62
Carlos Alberto Montaner
11 A Future Without Communism? 70
Ivan Svitak
v
Vl Contents
12 Reforms are Possible 83
Doan Van Toai
PART III UNOFFICIAL MOVEMENTS 91
13 Poland: Rebuilding Social Life 93
Jakub Karpinski
14 The Emerging Civil Society 106
Zagorka Golubovic
15 Charter 77 and other Independent Movements 116
Jan Kavan
16 Dissent in Yugoslavia 129
Aleksa Djilas
17 Cultural Resistance: Parallel Literature 135
in Czechoslovakia
Jan Vladislav
18 Ethnic Dissent in Eastern Europe: 142
The Romanian-Hungarian Conflict
Geza Szocs
PART IV INTELLECTUALS AND THE 149
COMMUNIST STATE
19 Cooperation and Conflict 151
Paul Hollander
20 East Bloc Intellectuals 165
Antonin Liehm
21 A View from Bucharest 170
Mihai Botez
22 The Anguish and Joy of the Polish 182
Intellectual
Aleksander Smolar
23 Cultural Dilemmas in Contemporary Bulgaria 189
Atanas Slavov
24 Civilization vs. Anti-civilization: 194
To Graduate or Not
Dorin Tudoran
Contents vii
25 Bitter Love: Chinese Intellectuals and the State 201
judith Shapiro
26 Dialectics of Disenchantment 207
Vladimir Tismaneanu
Index 218
Notes on the Contributors
Humberto Belli- Former Sandinista and editorial page editor
of La Prensa; director of the Puebla Institute, author of Breaking
Faith, and associate professor of sociology at the Franciscan
University of Steubenville (Ohio).
Mihai Botez - Mathematician and human rights actiVIst
in Romania; currently a guest lecturer in mathematics at
Stanford University.
Aleksa Djilas - Yugoslav historian, political scientist and
dissident writer; now co-editor of Kontinent and visiting scholar
at Harvard's Russian Research Center.
Ferenc Feher - Prominent figure in the Budapest school
of social philosophy, forced into exile because of political
harassment; co-author with Agnes Heller, of Dictatorship over
Needs, and senior lecturer in the humanities at the New School
for Social Research.
Carlos Franqui - Fidel Castro's former friend, a prominent
journalist in Cuba before his break with Castroism; author
of classic books on the Cuban revolution, including Family
Portrait with Fidel.
Zagorka Golubovic - Former professor at the University
of Belgrade; dismissed from her teaching post for political
reasons; now a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences
in Belgrade and president of the Philosophical Association in
Serbia.
Miklos Haraszti - Author of The Velvet Prison: Artists Under State
Socialism and A Worker in a Worker's State, an editor of Beszelo,
the journal of Hungary's democratic opposition. Currently a
leader of the Alliance of Free Democrats and a member of
Hungary's Parliament.
viii
Notes on the Contributors ix
Agnes Heller - A leading member of the Budapest school
of social philosophy; author of Beyond justice, co-author with
Ferenc Feher of Dictatorship Over Needs, professor of philosophy
at the New School for Social Research.
Paul Hollander - Professor of Sociology, University of
Massachusetts/A mherst; author of Political Pilgrims, The Many
Faces of Socialism and The Survival of the Adversary Culture.
Jakub Karpinski - Former professor at the Warsaw Uni
versity, lost his job because of involvement in the 1968
student protest movement; author of Countdown, a history of
the Polish opposition; a frequent contributor to the Polish
independent press.
Jan Kavan - One of the most active student leaders during the
Prague Spring; founded the exiled Palach Press; now editor of
East European Reporter (London) and vice-president of East Euro
pean Cultural Foundation. Currently a leading member of the
Civic Forum and a member of the Czechoslovak Parliament.
Edward Kuznetsov - Former Soviet dissident, spent more
than 15 years in jail and was sentenced to death; author of
Prison Diaries (winner of the 1974 Gallimard Prize in France)
and Russian Novel, now with Resistance International in Paris.
Antonin Liehm - Former editor of a leading intellectual
journal during the Prague Spring and now editor of Interna
tional Letter (published in Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and Rome);
his books include Politics of Culture, Closefy Watched Films and
The Milos Fonnan Stories.
Franz Loeser- Philosophy professor at Humboldt University
in East Berlin; expelled from the university in 1982 because
of opposition to the militaristic course of East German gov
ernment. Author of The Untrustworthy Society, a critique of East
German socialism.
Mihailo Markovic - An active critic of bureaucratic socialism,
former editor-in-chief of Praxis International and author of Demo
cratic Socialism: Theory and Practice; teaches philosophy at the