The Intellectuals of Soviet Reform

The Intellectuals of Soviet Reform

We bring together here several short comments on the remarkable events in Eastern Europe. As usual, each writer expresses an individual opinion—Eds.

In one of the earliest issues of Dissent (Summer 1954) we published an essay by Isaac Deutscher on “The Future of Russian Society” in which he argued that the major reconstruction of the Russian economy had been completed and that Russia was now engaged in a gigantic effort to further develop its productive forces. Given this large-scale development of the productive forces, Deutscher argued, in good Marxist fashion, that one was now likely to witness a relaxation of controls, a liberalization of the regime, and a gradual democratization of Soviet society.