"The New York Times", Sunday, January 22, 1989
Disgust with tyrants:
"I am a strong supporter of Gorbachev's policies. This doesn't mean I like everything he does."
ERIK M. AMETISTOV
Lawyer, Soviet Union
Erik M. Ametistov, 54, a Moscow lawyer specializing in international law at a Government research institute, is a member of the Gorbachev generation. He has recently been working on reforms of the legal code, and has been active in some unofficial political groups.
I joined the Party rather late. I was 33. That was in 1967. I must say that I hesitated a long time before taking that step.... I have always had extremely high regard for individual freedom and independence, and of course joining the Party would to a certain degree restrict my endeavors. Moreover, I came of age during the period we now call the Khrushchev thaw - from the mind - 1950's to early 1960's....
I understood very well that if I joined the party, I would have to share responsibility for everything that happened in our country - both in former times and in the future. And this to a considerable degree caused me to hesitate, because after everything that happened in the Stalinist era became known, naturally one doubted whether one should share responsibility for all that. ... Some of the intelligentsia came to believe that we shouldn't leave the party but on the contrary we should join it in order to try to do something to halt the restoration of Stalinism. This was probably the major reason why I joined the party....
It seems to me there is a serious crisis in Communist ideology, especially in our country. We are now reevaluating what was done before and are trying to find new paths of orientation. At the same time, we are trying not to lose our principles.... I must tell you that for the first time in many years I feel like a man, who is no longer in the opposition. For the first time since the 50's I feel I am in a circle of people that totally supports the ideas of those who are in power now. On the other hand, those who where formerly on the side of authorities are now in the opposition.
I am a fervent supporter of Gorbachev. I think in the present situation, where unfortunately, in our country everything is based on the individual, Gorbachev the individual is very much needed. That is why I support him. This doesn't mean that I agree with everything he says.... For example, it was announced on the more than a year ago, at the January plenum, that we were all on the same side of the barricade...in the first place, why do we need a barricade? Second, it seems to me that a lot of different people have gathered on that one side of the barricade. It's crowded here on this side.
I cannot share values with such people as, for example, the former procurator Shekhovtsev, who brought a suit against Sovetskaya Kultura and Oles Adamovich in defense of Stalin. I cannot share anything with Nina Andreyeva. I cannot accept that I share ideals with thousands who are guilty of mass repressions during the Stalin era. These were or their helpers - and they are still around. So it is hard to talk about unity executioners in the party.
In my opinion ... the idea of unity at one time became a paranoia and led to many negative consequences. It was the idea of party unity that brought Stalin to the top of the power pyramid. This was how he suppressed his opponents....
I have already said that I am a strong ideological supporter of Gorbachev's policies. This doesn't mean that I like everything he does. For example I totally disagree with his approach to the country's nationalities question, to what is happening in Nagorno-Karabakh. I think that a compromise could have been found there. ...Nevertheless, I think of myself as his dedicated supporter.
I have much respect for Lenin. ... However, I think that he was also responsible for many of the things that led us to the situation of the 20's and 30's. ... I think that the idea of Party unity played a tragic role here, and he supported this. When he supported it, it was used for the opposite purpose of what Lenin was striving for.... Ten Hitlers could not have harmed our country and Communism as a whole more than Stalin. I am not describing him as a false prophet. He was evil incarnate. No one could rival him, not even Ivan the Terrible. Then there was Trotsky who, it seems to me, did not differ too much from Stalin.
When our troops went into Afghanistan, this was one of the times when I was ashamed..... From the very beginning I thought this was a colossal mistake, one of the events that undermined detente. It did not bring us the slightest benefit. It brought us 14,000 casualties. It caused us great moral losses that we will continue to fell for a long time. We morally corrupted a significant part of our youth who fought there.... There were crises before then - in autumn 1956 there was Hungary, in 1968 there was Czechoslovakia. These were very difficult periods. I and my circle took these events very hard.
On why he didn't leave the party after he began to have doubts in 1968: Quite frankly, at that time it was suicide to leave. I know of cases where people did so and were sent to psychiatric hospitals. Certain elements of compromise were involved here....
I was very proud to be in the Komsomol at the time of the 20th Congress. That was s time of pride. And today is even more so. Today I feel more youthful, because what is happening in the country today represents the realization of the ideals of my youth.
