Friday, March 28, 2008

Solzhenitsyn on How Totalitarianism Negotiates

"The Soviet Union and the Communist countries know how to conduct negotiations. For a long time they made no concessions and then they give in just a little bit. Right away there is rejoicing: 'Look, they've made a concession; it's time to sign." For two years the European negotiators of thirty-five countries have painfully been negotiating and their nerves have been stretched to the breaking point; finally the gave in. A few women from the Communist countries may now marry foreigners. A few newspapermen will now be permitted to travel a little more than before. They give one-thousandth of what natural law should provide--things which people should be able to do even before such negotiations are undertaken--and already there is joy. And here in the West we hear many voices that say: 'Look, they're making concessions; it's time to sign.'" - Alexander Solzhenitsyn in Warning to the West (1976)

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