Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-11-04
The Loss of Fear

TIC LOSS OF rear
The first and most funda-
mental cause for the outbreaks
in Eastern Europe is that men
and women within the Soviet
Union and in Eastern Europe
have begun to lose fear.
A totalitarian regime is like a
bank. A. bank cannot keen. on
hand enough cash to pay of its
depositors If they all try to cash
IN their holdings at any one
time. Similarly, a police state
cannot deal with a dissident
population If enough people are
willing to risk their lives at the
same time. Therefore, the fun
damental aim Of a totalitarian
regime must be to create and
maintain a mood of terror where
men feel that any act of defiance
or hostility toward the regime is
almost sure to result in death or
imprisonment.
Since Stain died the fear of
the secret police in the Soviet
bloc has diminished. The rela-
tive decline Of the secret police
did not come about because
Stains successors were against
q police state on grounds of
moral or political principle. It
came about because they feared
Tor their own lives and status If
the secret police continued to be
IN the hands of one man, as it
was under Stain. Stains tech
nique was not merely to terror
lie the mass of Soviet citizens.
but also to terrorize his imme-
date colleagues and bureaucrats
and soldiers who operated the
Soviet state and empire. That
Is why Beria, who inherited the
secret police in March, 1858,
had to die.
Committee Over Police
After killing Beria, the new
Soviet leaders placed the secret
police under a committee; and
the power Of the secret police was
reduced over the army, the Com
munist Party, and over the other
bureaucracies. And Stains sue
cesscrs almost certainly made a
deal that the secret police would
not be used against one another.
Stain, then, ran not merely
. police state but police politics.
His successors have. for their own
purposes and safety, reduced po-
lice politics at the top of the
system. In doing this, however.
they inevitably gave the impress
sion to the mass of Soviet citi-
Gems and the citizens in the satel.
lite countries that the secret po-
ice as an arm Of the Soviet state
had been reduced in stature and
authority. And IN fact the peo-
pie could observe that this hap
pened in their own towns and
villages. tslsan
Two results followed from this
de-rating of the secret police;
and they were strongly reinforced
BY the Discrimination program
~ raoay,f V,aontt,e
Terror Reduced
First, terror as a state of mind
has been reduced in. The Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe. Sec
ond, men who for years were I'M
willing to discuss political mat
ters even in their families have
begun to talk with one another
and the terrible human isolation
Of totalitarianism has begun to
break down. New horizons have
not only opened up; they have
been widely discussed. Many
western observers have noted
these recent changes in their
personal contacts in the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe.
At every level there has been
o ferment Of discussion which
Russia has not seen since about
1929 and which has not been
seen in Eastern Europe since
about 194s.
N0tionoIism's Survival
The second fundamental fac
tor which lies behind the crisis