61
99-06 69th A venue
Forest Hills, New York
My dear Neill:
[ 19 4 1 ]
November 3, 1941Your letter of October 10th arrived several days ago. It was
good to hear from you.
I could not, of course, change my opinion about Stalin and Stalinism
because of what is going on now. The fight of Stalin against Hitler does
not prove that his system is not a hitlerite one. The blame for the
outcome of this war so far is still on Stalin who betrayed the Czechs in
1939, who cooperated with Hitler in Poland, who opened all doors to
everything that happened since. Of course, he fights now because he has
to, but you don't doubt, I think, that he would have preferred much
more to be able to fight on Hitler's side against the democracies. The
bravery of the Russian army is not his but the people's work, as is the
bravery of the German people. It is not a question whether the one or
the other is brave, but whether the basic and main issue of this war will
come forth and be fought for with the same bravery as they fight today
for no reason at all. No reason, I mean, is given for first messing up all
the people of Europe in irrational politics, then creating a Hitler, then
helping Hitler along, consciously or unconsciously, in most of his early
victories and letting down and betraying the former allies, then finding
out what one could have known years before if one had not uncon
sciously admired Hitler, and, finally, holding back what everyone knows
and wants, namely. the fact that the people are fighting for an order
which, if you want, you may call work democracy. What would you tell
a mother who has messed up her child in education? You would say you
should not have done this or that to begin with. Once a situation is
messed up, I do not think that things can be improved within the
framework of the mess. Stalin carries 80% of the guilt for the form and
present status of this war. We have to fight against Hitler and against
Hitlerism everywhere, but we have not to fight for Stalin and we should
not hide what we have learned in these dreadful years. To hide this now
would mean nothing but to create new Stalinism later. You may leave
his name out if you want from the description of the dictators and their
function, but please do not leave out Stalinism. And I don't think
Stalinism would be better as a framework for our work than Hitlerism
or Chamberlain ism.
You want to know about our work here. Well, the situation here now
is the following: We have a small group of about six physicians and a