Sociologists of the World, Ignite

This, then, was the dialogue. Official spokesmen for the Soviet state or its satellites proclaimed the numberless virtues of socialism, and Western sociologists (with an occasional assist from Africa, Asia, arid Latin America) lamented the faults and growing problems of democratic societies. Some, at least, of the sociologists were competent, and much of their criticism was well based. But in the context of a repetitive glorification of the Soviet monstrosity, not to dwell on the comparatively great efficiency of the West, its comparatively enormous freedom, was also monstrous.

Of the roughly 2,400 delegates, perhaps ninety came from the Soviet Union. They were headed by such as F. V. Konstantinov, chief editor of Kommunist and formerly the rector of the Central Committee’s Academy of Social Sciences, and P. N. Fedoseev, chief editor of Bolshevik under Stalin, then inspector of the Central Committee, assigned to purge it of impious elements. Officially the Congress took no note of Soviet totalitarianism, invited no single Soviet dissident among the many in the West or still in the USSR who have analyzed Soviet society sometimes brilliantly, always courageously. The establishment delegates who did attend had, to run a barrage of unofficial comment on their routine offerings.

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William Petersen

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This, then, was the dialogue. Official spokesmen for the Soviet state or its satellites proclaimed the numberless virtues of socialism, and Western sociologists (with an occasional assist from Africa, Asia, arid Latin America) lamented the faults and growing problems of democratic societies. Some, at least, of the sociologists were competent, and much of their criticism was well based. But in the context of a repetitive glorification of the Soviet monstrosity, not to dwell on the comparatively great efficiency of the West, its comparatively enormous freedom, was also monstrous.

Of the roughly 2,400 delegates, perhaps ninety came from the Soviet Union. They were headed by such as F. V. Konstantinov, chief editor of Kommunist and formerly the rector of the Central Committee’s Academy of Social Sciences, and P. N. Fedoseev, chief editor of Bolshevik under Stalin, then inspector of the Central Committee, assigned to purge it of impious elements. Officially the Congress took no note of Soviet totalitarianism, invited no single Soviet dissident among the many in the West or still in the USSR who have analyzed Soviet society sometimes brilliantly, always courageously. The establishment delegates who did attend had, to run a barrage of unofficial comment on their routine offerings.