A tribute to Vadim Rogovin by David North

"He has dedicated his life to the victory of that truth, in which he believes so passionately"

On May 12, 1997 the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences held a meeting in Moscow to honor Vadim Rogovin, a leading researcher at the Institute, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. David North, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the US, made the following remarks at the meeting.

It is both a great honor and great pleasure to bring the greetings of the International Committee of the Fourth International and that of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States to Vadim Rogovin on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. That comrades and friends of Vadim have come to Moscow from all over the world on this occasion demonstrates the immense value that is placed upon his work and life by an international audience of workers, students and intellectuals who have been inspired and moved by his struggle for historical truth.

I understand that this tribute has been organized by those colleagues and friends of Vadim Rogovin who have worked with him for many years. I am sure that those of you who have had the opportunity and good fortune to work with Vadim appreciate the extraordinary power of his intellect, the astonishing breadth of his knowledge, his seemingly inexhaustible capacity for mental labor, the amazing fluency of his thought, speech and writing, and, even more striking, his physical and moral courage in the face of adversity, the nobility of his character and the goodness of his heart. There is not a single person here today--even if there is someone who perhaps disagrees with certain elements of his work and views--who would deny that Vadim Rogovin is an exceptional human being.

Yet I cannot help but wonder whether the members of this famous and prestigious institute fully appreciate the significance of the life that we are honoring today. In saying this I intend no disrespect whatsoever to the members of this institute, many of whom, I understand, are among Vadim's closest friends.

There is a saying with which you are certainly familiar: a prophet is without honor in his own country. This phrase comes to mind as one considers the lifework of Vadim Rogovin, not only as a commentary on the difficulty, complexity and paradoxes of his position in the intellectual and political life of contemporary Russia, but also because it encapsulates the tragedy of the former Soviet Union and the society that has emerged from its collapse.

For despite all the convulsive changes that have occurred here over the last decade, one thing has not changed: this remains a country which still cannot acknowledge, let alone pay tribute to, the lifework and thoughts of one of the greatest political and intellectual figures of its history, Lev Davidovitch Trotsky.

Vadim Rogovin is a prophet of historical truth. And like all prophets, he challenges and confronts the society in which he lives with difficult questions that it would prefer to evade or ignore. The great historical question that Vadim has placed before his contemporaries is: "Was there an alternative to Stalinism?" He insists, on the basis of a profound study of Soviet history, that there was: that Stalinism was neither the inevitable nor necessary outcome of the October Revolution, but represented its betrayal and negation.

In referring to Vadim as a prophet, it is not my intention to invoke the image of an austere and pleasure-denying ascetic, indifferent to and detached from the daily cares, concerns and joys of the world in which he lives. No one who knows Vadim could imagine him in a hermit's cave. He is delightfully human, a connoisseur of ice cream and all things beautiful, a fanatical sightseer, a man who partakes of life with an enthusiastic curiosity, and who loves poetry and the company of colleagues and friends.

But the pursuit of truth is the commanding passion of his life. It is this fundamental element of his intellectual and moral character that makes Vadim Rogovin so exceptional a figure. We live today in a disoriented and distracted world, whose attitude to truth recalls that of Pontius Pilate, who, when told by a certain renowned prisoner that he had come into the world to bear witness unto the truth, replied, rather cynically, "And what is truth?"

Pilate wished to suggest that the practical and successful man need not trouble himself with such an abstract problem, and that, at any rate, the definition of truth is a purely personal matter, which changes with the needs of the day. Some 2,000 years have passed, but the pragmatic outlook of that Roman bureaucrat still has many adherents. From all quarters we are told that objective truth is a mirage, a burdensome philosophical construction and naive affectation of Enlightenment thought, with its foolish faith in the power of reason, which man would be better off without.

The most powerful refutation of this contemptuous attitude toward the search for truth is to be found in the fate of the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia. In this country we see the horrifying consequences of the suppression of objective truth, which was concentrated in the systematic falsification of history.

As one who lives outside Russia, I can only follow the conditions that exist in this country through the press and with the help of reports that I receive from Russian friends and cothinkers. Those of you who live in this country are far better informed than I of the present state of affairs in Russia. But whatever your political views may be, I am sure that as humane and decent people you are deeply troubled by the innumerable statistical indices, not to mention visible signs, of economic breakdown and social decay. A tiny fraction of the population is wallowing in obscene wealth of unexplained origins, while the great mass of the people is suffering ever greater deprivation.

Many explanations of varying plausibility and quality have been given for the present state of affairs, but one thing must by now be clear. When the long-simmering crisis of Soviet society finally erupted in 1985, there was no one to be found who was in a position to understand, let alone provide a solution to, the problems confronting the USSR. It was not only the first secretary of the Communist Party who was overwhelmed and bewildered. Little help was forthcoming from Soviet economists, philosophers and sociologists. The activities of the politicians and their advisers during the era of perestroika resembled a game of "Blind Man's Bluff." Programs that were announced with great fanfare on one day were found to be unworkable on the second day and forgotten on the third.

What was lacking in those days was any sense of historical perspective. How could a path be found to the future without an objective and honest confrontation with the past? I recall reading in November 1987 Gorbachev's speech on the seventieth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Shamefully, Stalin was praised for his contribution to socialism, and, as always, Trotsky was denounced as the arch-enemy of Lenin. The entire speech was a tissue of lies and vulgar distortions. Upon reading this banal and dishonest speech, one could not help but shake one's head and comment with bitter sarcasm: "And it is upon this rotten foundation that Gorbachev plans the renewal of Soviet society!"

A terrible price continues to be paid for the falsification of history and the denial of objective truth.

It is a poignant fact that the year in which we celebrate Vadim's sixtieth birthday is also the sixtieth anniversary of the most terrible year in the history of the Soviet Union, 1937. The events of that year, which were to have such tragic consequences for the fate of the Soviet Union and the cause of international socialism, also determined the direction of Vadim Rogovin's intellectual life.

Just three months before Vadim was born, Leon Trotsky replied to the Moscow frame-up trial of Radek, Piatakov and other Old Bolsheviks who had been condemned by Stalin. The Moscow Trials, he proclaimed, arose from the betrayal of socialism by the totalitarian bureaucracy. Every charge made by Vyzhinsky against the defendants was a lie. "Be it over our bleaching bones," Trotsky declared, "the truth will triumph." Vadim Rogovin has dedicated his life to the victory of that truth, in which he believes so passionately.

None of us can predict either the time when or the precise form in which the terrible social and political problems confronting the people of the former Soviet Union will find their solution. In the final analysis, the resolution of this crisis depends not only on events within Russia, but on the unfolding of the class struggle beyond its borders. But we can say with certainty that among the most important intellectual indications that a solution is in the process of being discovered will be the expanding circulation of the books of Vadim Rogovin.

And we can also predict, with the utmost confidence, that the time is not too far off when our friend, colleague and comrade, Vadim Zakharovitch Rogovin, will be acknowledged in Russia and throughout the world as not only one of the greatest historians of his age, but also as one of the most honest and principled men of his time.