Joseph Stalin died in 1953, the same year The Captive Mind by the Polish poet, writer, and diplomat Czeslaw Milosz was published in the United States. It was the height of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and western democracies led by the United States. “The world of today is torn asunder,” Milosz wrote, “by a great dispute; and not only a dispute, but a ruthless battle for world domination.” The existential conflict of the 20th century pitted two very different ideologies against one another.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, it seemed that western notions of freedom, democracy, human rights, and capitalism had prevailed. Former Soviet republics declared their independence and began, with varying degrees of success, transitioning toward elections and free market capitalism. The march of communism had for a time seemed inevitable, animated as it was by the noble goal of once and for all eliminating “man’s exploitation of man.” However, replacing the desire for personal profit with an ethos of collective responsibility was an ideal not achieved in the Soviet Union or anywhere else.
Religion never lost its influence on people, either.
Milosz survived five years of Nazi occupation. He walked through Warsaw streets reduced to rubble and ash. As a Pole he never felt much affinity for Russia, though many friends from his youth had become disciples of Stalin. Thinking for oneself or challenging communist orthodoxy was dangerous. The youngest generation in Eastern Europe was raised to worship Russia and believe it was destined to achieve a foremost place in science and technology. Publicly pointing out the foibles and failures of communist rule was the road to exile, a labor camp, or death.
Four chapters in the book are devoted to men that Milosz identifies as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. Milosz knew these men, had traveled in their circles, and describes how, for reasons of position, privilege, money or fame, they contorted themselves mentally to match the orthodoxy, even when it was demonstrably false or contradicted by reality.
It was the latter idea that intrigued me. It’s generally unwise to view the present through the lens of the past — the world is vastly different now, far more interconnected, awash in information and altered centers of power — yet human nature hasn’t changed, and autocratic leaders all over the world gaslight their citizens using tools that were unimaginable to Stalin. The ideological trappings of communism and capitalism, freedom and democracy, have given way to an amalgam of imperialism, nationalism, kleptocracy, and oligarchic rule.
Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta aren’t very different from MAGA politicians and appointees who twist, contort, and debase themselves to remain in the good graces of their Dear Leader. Many more tread quietly and hide their true beliefs for fear of losing position and privilege, or being targeted for violent retribution.
The MAGA movement is attempting to impose its retrograde values on the United States, scrubbing history that doesn’t fit its official narrative, attacking institutions, and eviscerating programs they find objectionable, celebrating bigotry and ignorance, and purging ranks of all but the most loyal. Brutality was the prevailing ethos of the period Milosz writes about, while ours is pervaded by performative cruelty.
The problem then and now is that a complex world can’t be reduced to simple notions of black and white, good and evil, without running headlong into internal contradictions and incoherence. Milosz recognized the extremes Stalinists pursued to isolate themselves from reality. “I am concerned with the crimes that are being, and will continue to be, committed,” Milosz wrote. “Crimes in the name of the new and radiant man; crimes committed to the sound of orchestras and choruses, to the blare of loudspeakers and the recitation of optimistic poems.”
What would Stalin make of how history has played out? Would he be astonished to see the President of the United States openly supporting Russia while degrading European allies? Would Stalin believe his eyes and ears? And what would Milosz think of Poland, fully integrated into the west as a member of NATO and the EU? Similarly for the Baltic States, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, which Milosz perceived as particularly vulnerable. No longer a great ideological battle over fundamental questions, the world’s wealthy have decided that they deserve to rule. Rather than a war of ideas, what matters now is brute force, as we see in Benjamin Netanyahu’s drive to cobble together Greater Israel on the bones of the Palestinians, Putin’s dream of a territorial restoration of the former Soviet Union, and Donald Trump musing openly about seizing territory belonging to NATO member countries, Canada and Denmark.
Clearly, the new and radiant man has yet to emerge.
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