Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

But there is also another side to this picture. Business and bureaucracy
have in a way merged. Never before did officials have so
much influence. During the last eight years, the political process
has been frozen. There has been no competitive struggle among
the various parties which would allow a new generation of politicians
to appear. There is also no appreciation of the fact that the
enormity of the Russian territory means that only decentralised,
democratic self-organisation will allow Russia to avoid the stagnation
into which it is being pushed by its current bureaucracy.
In forty years since the Prague Spring, my personal life has also
seen many changes. I have not drunk myself to death, broken down,
or, as the Russians say, loved too many women. I have reassessed
my values. Forty years ago I went to Prague as a communist and returned
as a social democrat, a person who had come to believe
that without social justice, a society turns into a menagerie, into a
game of egoistical instincts; That justice should be embodied in a
framework of freedom and democracy.
This year I turned 78. At this age, one feels an even stronger desire
to sum things up, to put an emotional full stop. For me the full stop
is this visit to Prague: an important chapter in the book of my life has
now closed and with great satisfaction, reminding me of the wise
phrase – never say never.
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