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Russia After StalinIn his criticism of Russia After Stalin, Mr. George F. Kennan, for instance, writes that the вЂmajority of students of modern totalitarianism … feel that if the ruling group remains united, vigilant and ruthless, it need not defer extensively to, or be seriously influenced by, subjective feelings within the populace at large’. And again: вЂIn general, totalitarian leaders who retain their internal unity and their ruthlessness can scoff at subjective states of the popular mind…’ (My italics—I.D.) Mr. Kennan's words, written before Beria's fall, reflected an assumption that there was no need for Western policy to take into account any genuine divisions within the Soviet ruling group, because no such divisions existed. This assumption has been proved wrong. But what conclusion is to be drawn from the fact that the Soviet ruling group does not вЂremain united’ and does not вЂretain its internal unity’? Surely the вЂsubjective states of the popular mind’ do acquire some political significance thereby? And those states of mind may in part even account for the differences within the ruling group itself?) From the beginning, however, the forces opposed to the Malenkov-Beria policy were formidable ...» |
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