"A Radiant Future"

In spite of a reputation for keeping out of the public eye, Konstantin Chernenko made a collection of his essays and speeches, and has published 15 of them. Many of the pieces were prepared for specific occasions. Taken as a whole, however, the selection offers a fascinating picture of the corporate Soviet mind. Except for a page-long personal history, included in the preface at the publisher's request, Chernenko's book presents an almost disembodied, albeit forceful, expression of Communist Party orthodoxy. It serves as an interesting guidebook to the official Soviet position on matters both practical and ideological, as well as offering Chernenko's--and presumably the Soviets'--view of the world. Herewith, excerpts from the English-language version of the book, which will be reprinted in paperback by Pergamon Press of Oxford next month under the title Selected Speeches and Writings:

On his boyhood: I was born into a large and poor peasant family in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia in 1911. I lost my mother when I was a young boy. At twelve I went to work for a wealthy master to earn my living. New Soviet life was just coming into its own, and I felt its fresh winds when I had joined the Young Communist League. That was back in 1926. We studied and held down our jobs at the same time. We were underfed and poorly clothed, but the dream of a radiant future for all fascinated us and made us feel happy.

On detente: It is sometimes claimed that peaceful coexistence and detente, as well as cooperation, are impossible in conditions of continued ideological struggle. Some go still further, demanding that we renounce ideological confrontation. Nobody, however, can abolish the ideological struggle at will. This is an objective, historical category in a world where social classes and different social systems exist.

On the U.S.: In the United States they are stubbornly insisting that negotiations on specific issues should be conducted in the context of the full spectrum of international problems. Only recently the U.S. Administration expatiated on every issue without exception in the context of its thoroughly hypocritical concern for "human rights." Now we are being faced with new "contexts." What are the motives behind them? one may wonder. They are simple: to evade, let us say, strategic arms limitation talks, to add fuel to conflicts, to interfere directly or indirectly in the internal affairs of other nations.

On Central America and Cuba: We are living in a rapidly changing world. None of the earlier epochs has known such sweeping and dynamic changes. Social change is literally knocking at the doors of the most ossified tyrannical regimes before our very eyes. In Latin America this is evidenced conclusively by the collapse of the dictatorship in Nicaragua ... the people's movement in El Salvador, the growing will of all nations of the continent toward independence and freedom. The United States wishes to oppose these changes by its "rapid deployment force," by permanent power pressure against countries pursuing a policy unpalatable to it. This is a dangerous line. Indeed, is it the Cuban teachers schooling children in Nicaragua who are searching for concessions for Cuba or trying to pocket the wealth of that country? Did the valiant sons of Cuba give military support to independent Ethiopia and Angola at the request of their governments in order to deprive them of their freedom or to interfere in their affairs? No, a thousand times no!

On Soviet Jews: All those who are drumming up artificial arguments about the existence of the Jewish problem in the Soviet Union are complete bankrupts and hypocrites. The Zionist adventurists, who are playing with the fates of the people they have deceived in Israel and elsewhere, are clamoring for all the world to hear about denial to Jews of full freedom of emigration from the socialist countries to Israel. Numerous letters and eyewitness accounts show, however, that Zionist propagandists are pushing emigrants into a quagmire of political and economic hardships. As for the real situation in the field of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union, Jewish citizens are allowed to leave the country in accordance with the same regulations that are valid for all Soviet citizens.

On China: For the time being let us be guided by the facts, which evidence that chauvinistic, expansionist psychosis generated by Maoism has not yet died down in Peking. The Chinese leadership continues in touch with the imperialist circles of the United States, Japan and a number of other states to spin a web of intrigues against the socialist community, against the progressive, revolutionary liberation forces. What is more, China definitely expects assistance from the West in modernizing its armed forces.

On Afghanistan: Washington, assisted by Peking, provoked the "Afghan crisis" so as to free its hands completely for a policy of opposition to detente. And when we helped our neighbor Afghanistan give a rebuff to the aggression, repulse the attacks of the bandit gangs operating primarily from Pakistan territory, Washington and Peking raised an unprecedented hue and cry. The Soviet Union was accused of all imaginable sins: an ambition to make a breakthrough to the warm seas, an intention to pocket foreign oil, etc. The actual reason for that campaign of slander was the collapse of the plans to draw Afghanistan into the orbit of imperialist politics and to create a threat to our country from the south. Now life in Afghanistan is gradually returning to normal.

On anti-Soviet feeling: In an interview with the American journalist Louise Bryant, Lenin said, "America will gain nothing from the pious Wilsonian policy of refusal to do business with us for the simple reason that our government is not to their liking." This statement has stood the test of time. Fantastic allegations about the Soviet Union's ambitions for "world supremacy" and "a world Communist government" may only lead the cause of international intercourse and cooperation into a dangerous deadlock. The hue and cry about "international terrorism" allegedly being masterminded by the Soviet Union is just as absurd.

On internal corruption: Party organizations are empowered to inspect the work of the management. Making wide use of criticism and selfcriticism, they struggle with determination against red tape, parochialism, infractions of the law and labor discipline, and carry out measures to end mismanagement and extravagance. It must be confessed that some rank-and-file party members and leading executives are prone to be generous at government expense. Such "philanthropists" dip their hands into the public pocket themselves and are indifferent to embezzlement of public property by others. They cause grave harm to Communist construction, of course, but they do not run the show, figuratively speaking. They are too few and far between to warrant judgment about Communists in general.

On Soviet society: We have neither exploiters nor exploited people nor unemployment nor poverty. A country in which formerly three-fourths of the population could not read or write, the Soviet Union has become a land of 100% literacy, and three-quarters of its working people have a secondary or higher education. In place of backward Imperial Russia, a new country has emerged that has the world's largest number of book readers and theatergoers and the largest number of engineers, scientists and doctors. And every Soviet citizen is confident that tomorrow he will live even better than he lives today.