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8/24/1964 - Looking Backward by Anatole Shub

NOT FOR PUBLICATION INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS AS Chilmark Massachusetts Looking Backward August Mr Richard H Nolte Institute Current World Affairs Madison Avenue New York N Y Dear Mr Nolte The spends United States diffi becomes conjure Eastern Europe again remember really during years In spirit Europe remote enough country Eastern Eur Western Europe When I there I think almost exclusively people places I attempt systematize summarize convert concrete experience abstract ideas I great reluctance useless nonsense written somfalse theories spread attempt reduce complex region comprehensible proportions I tempted advise questioners If really spend great trying nderstand For first thing about Eastern Europe current cliches catch phrases theses which define public image inaccurate obsolete irrelevant The Iron Curtain years remai making The Soviet disintegrating decade European Fee Trade Association The socialist countries socialist socialism defined democratic control economy working class about equality They certainly Communist Communism means distrition according withering state Although leaders these countries service Mazxism Leninism amalgam itself Stalinist coinage there pecious little Marxism every Apart handful Polish revisionists party disfavor serious Marxist scholars West The peoplesof Communist countries Communist Europe Greece included although Russian Germans Eastern Europe itself convenient handle group countries between Germany Russia whose outstanding character istic remains diversity Budapest Sofia common Paris Rome Cliches excluded little about Eastern Europe twenty years Partly because Nazism Communism partly because general exclusion Western observers mostly I think because Eastern Europe contains world languages every about shroude controversy contradiction propaganda claims counterclaims importan sprsity reliable prary sources When reporter Paris writes French farmers 2estive based directly directly hundreds conversations AS eyewitness reports When other someone writes Warsaw Polish peasants restive ultimate source single Western diplomat reading Communist press spoken three Poles peasants In analysis local press source information about Eastern Europe Yet paradoxically spending begins under stand And further paradox always assumption there exists another entire world which press reflects rarely critical circumstances delayed truncated usually dievious motives Le always there arshall cLuhan argues invention printing forced reduce essentially ideas feelings linear serial dimensional after another I would slight exaggeration Eastern Europe Kafka tradition process reversed forms multilayered multivalent communication developed intricate three dimensional chess twelve music Nothing seems opposite Does attitude humility mindedness flexibility extreme tentativeness approaching Eastern arope peoples problems I should think although attitude taken years struggling various forms Eastern Question It certainly attitude ericans havebe taking toward place memoj So rejects canned certainties still propose guidelines I would offer obvious those which tourist feels which experts perhaps granted Namely peoples Eastern Europe small unsettled rtheless European Nearly peoples Eastern Europe areaoat least thousand years since before coming ongols Hapsburgs Ottomans centuries before Prussia Russia Christianity before Great Schism alone Reformation which fered through Each another great Kingdom Empire during historical nineteenth centuzj independent states nearly grumbled under rulers religious faiths other their longer periods Small Compared 75million Germans I00 million ssians peoples between small tribes indeed The numerous Poles perhaps million Rumanians about million In roughly million range agyars Czechs Serbs Then between eight million Greeks Finns Bulgarians Cro Slovaks about million Then around million Slovenes Nacedonians Albanians Lithuanians Noslem Slavs Letts Estonmans And scattered throughout numbers often great peoples state there until Germans Jews Ukrainians Byelorussians Ruthenes Turks Gypsies One cannot begin ompare historical hodge podge compact large Latin Catholic_ nations West Poor Eastern Europe first underdeveloped estern attention nineteenth century With Bohemia nearly slumbered through three hundred years economic modernization which began Italy Low 0ountries The Eastern European peoples remain comparison West discounts drabness Communism Some compared advanced ormer colonies llgerians richly amused Yugoslavs offered technic Yes Russia Rttmania Yugoslavia though others great eztent substantial natural resources which properly exploited developed administered might bring those nations Western standards within perhaps three generations But hundred years Despite great efforts sorts economic Western cpital Soviet commissars close Eastern Europe progress field behind elsewhere If steel mills trouble With wheat finally masters production natural become important Communism develops Slovakia ruining Bohemia It Estern EurOpe suffered world started there partlE cause national pride alwaEs mattered there economic achievement national pride luxury possible numerous powerful peoples Living Eastern Europe experiencing almost daily inefficiencies apathies disorganizations economic anomalies understand easily temptation region offered Germans I Hitler Himmler Germans before Krupps Siemenses their great enterprises Volksdeutsch towns villages Bltic Black Sea continues their works cries Yet other begins understand resent East Europeans particularly Orthodox Slavs German penetration For glory failune these peoples after value spirit mterial We Ioe money Serb In sense others peoples Eastern Europe still large capitalist their outlook udents Weber major exc_eptions Czechs gyars deeply involved Reformation Unsettled East Europe present boundaries fixed olish frontiers Yet questions East ropean security place Europe world remain unsettled Not small question Neisse front ransylvia lIacedonia Bessarabia larger question exist bween Germany Russia mains answered So question East Erope plaCe AS international division labor Rtsaia defection Oomecon marks failure attempt begun Stin jection I iarshall Plan create sealed protected Esern market which satellite industry could thrive Now East Eur opesm countries gradually returning world market though their prewar money earners produce materials neglected Communism their industries competi They problems The Tugoslavs tried hardest carve place themselves succeeded sligh extent through lavish subsidies consumer tightening intensive expensive political lobbying Western credit other Eastern countries beautiful Dalmatian Coast which balance their foreign Europeans Asia etternich beginsattheLandgasse theyading Vienna Europe General Giulle extends Atlantic Urals Both statements sense nations Poland Rumania different France Geany But other Scandinavia Iberian peninsula British Isles One actually spend cities B dapest Prague arssv Lenin realize European remain despite vicissitudes decades The unnatural division Eu cause symbol overcoming division should primary concern everywhere I Nayor Berlin Ernst Reuter ssying united democratic Germar worth I00 divisions By token evolving Eastern Europe worth rocket AS bring about I should think appropriate found Aesop fable north This Eastern Europe reduced I obvious lities For complex changing fascinating realities there personally I imbibe music which means words I might never without encouragement sympathy Institute which I shall forever grateful Anatole Shub Received New York August