Page 8 University Daily Kansan Tuesday, May 11. 1965 Russian Historians Released From Stalin-Era Restraints By Harihar Krishnan Historians of Russia during the regime of Stalin were forced to write history that would only reflect the twists and turns made in the party line; not facts and truths. Professor J. L. H. Keep from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London University, made these observations yesterday during his talk on "Contemporary Soviet Historiography." "Those historians who failed to react like Pavlov's dogs, and jump when their master commanded, faced the prospect of dismissal and even physical liquidation," he said. BUT WHAT is the position of historians in this post-Stalinist era? "Today, 12 years after Stalin, the monolithic conformity on which he insisted still sets the tone of Soviet intellectual life, but the punitive aspects of the control system have been relaxed, and the Soviet historian has been given new opportunities to exploit as well as new tasks to perform," Prof. Keep said. "I do not wish to imply that the party's authority among Soviet intellectuals is in danger of imminent collapse; but it is legitimate to say that there is a state of tension between the ideological claims advanced by the party and the professional interests of the historians," he said. Prof. Keep added that the historians will not bring about the downfall of the Soviet system but it is proving to be something of a problem to keep them in line, and if the Soviet system of political controls continues to become less rigid, they are likely to make their voices heard to considerable effect. PROF. KEEP EXPLAINED why the Communist party should insist so strictly on ideological conformity among social scientists. "The key must be sought in the nature of the doctrine which the party professes in the nature of Marxist-Leninist ideology," he said. "Marx claimed to have discovered and explained the laws underlying the evolution of human society, its progress from lower to higher states through a dialectical conflict between opposing hostile classes, which he thought would lead eventually to socialism," he continued. "This dogmatic element in Marxism was intensified by Lenin, whose thinking had a more limited range, being mainly concerned with the problems of making a revolution in Russia," Prof. Keep said. LENIN ALSO CLAIMED for his views the same infailability that Marx had claimed for his. Once the Bolsheviks had seized and consolidated their power, Lenin was able to use the apparatus of the state to silence his critics outside and inside his party and to turn Marxism from a theory of society into an ideology, he said. "For the last 50 years much intellectual energy has been expended in an effort to explain and justify the revolution and the party's monopoly of political power, to convince everyone who mattered that the Bolsheviks were fulfilling the original prophecy of Marx, and that there was no conceivable alternative to their rule, since they were building socialism and represented the 'wave of the future' not only in Russia but throughout the world," Prof. Keep said. Ever since 1917 Soviet historians and other social scientists, too, have been an important detachment in the party's ranks. It has been their prime task to legitimize its rule, its political actions, and its policies, he said. "THE QUESTION the Soviet historian asks himself, when confronted with any problem from any period," Prof. Keep said, "is: did it promote or hinder that process of development which led to the present state of affairs in the USSR? The entire history of humanity is seen as either a prelude to or a consequence of Soviet communism." Prof. Keep added, "The Soviet world-view is at heart a religious one, or more properly a fideistic one since it is based on faith, a faith not in the supernatural but in man. "This fideistic approach reached its climax in the heyday of Stalinism, when the deified leader was hailed as the fount of all wisdom, and when his every utterance, however banal or trivial, was seen as a revelation of the ultimate truth, which he alone could perceive," he continued. EVEN IN THE contemporary scene the historian is still seen as a propagandist for communism, he must still uphold the myth of the party's infallibility and cannot exercise real independent critical judgment, he said. Commenting on this, Prof. Keep said, "But the academic bureaucracy has expanded correspondingly; the Academy of Sciences, for example, now maintains scholarly counsels to coordinate and supervise the work done in fields it is anxious to promote; it organizes collective enterprises and holds numerous conferences. The Soviet historian benefits materially from this expansion." Prof. Keep added that no less than 500 monographs or studies are due to be published shortly on the domestic history of the USSR. The Soviet historian is now encouraged to base his research on primary sources, especially unpublished documents in the archives. AGAIN. PROF. KEEP warned that the Soviet historian is required to be partisan and be duly mindful of the fact that there can be no ideological coexistence with the class enemy. "Thus, despite de-Stalinization, there can be as yet no fruitful dialogue between the Soviet and Western historians. "They serve as sounding boards for the party to present its views and such contacts work both ways; it is often the case that Soviet historians, who for professional reasons welcome the chance to meet their colleagues in capitalist countries,' take home with them impressions that they do not care to commit to print, and that these meetings and exchanges therefore, work to the advantage of the West," he said. ESSENTIALLY, THE party's policy since Stalin, Prof. Keep explained, has been to make the concessions to the historians' professional interests in the hope that these will suffice to satisfy their consciences as scholars and win their enthusiastic loyalty. Is this calculation correct, or has the relaxation of controls raised the seeds of doubt in their minds? "This question can best be answered by examining the treatment of some of the specific problems in recent literature, and assessing the changes that are under way," Prof. Keep said. "In Khrushchev's later years there was a noticeable tendency to build up his own person in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the early Stalin era; but it never reached the same dimensions, partly because Khrushchev was a different kind of individual and did not wish it to, partly because there were too many people inside and outside the profession who had suffered from Stalin's tyranny and did not wish to repeat the experience." Prof. Keep said. Political history, Prof. Keep said, is now treated with greater respect for the facts. Enemies of the ruling group like Trotsky, Bukharin and others are now being treated as human beings rather than being portrayed as devils. There is also a genuine effort to present a fairer picture of the Bolsheviks' role in the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Free Admission A committee of KU professors and members of student organizations are conducting a KU "pick-up" of the national teach-in after it is concluded. MAUPINTOUR Travel Hour Every Tuesday โ€” 3:00 to 4:00 Little Banquet Restaurant ON THE MALLS SHOPPING CENTER (West 23rd Street) Informal Showings of Exciting Color Movies on Vacation Spots Throughout the World. This Week's Feature Italy and Japan THE PROFESSORS in this KU "ad hoc" committee will be: Clifford P. Ketzel, associate professor of political science; Klaus Pringsheim, acting assistant political science professor; Errol E. 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