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PIATAKOV: A MIRROR OF SOVIET HISTORY 113These and other "residues" were integrated into a cult of the state and itsmachinery, linked to some pieces of Marxism (for example, nationalization)but "enriched" by the accent on the importance of subjective action and itstools—bureaucracy for one. 8 Significantly, in those years the two terms"sotsialisticheskii" and "gosudarstvennyi" became interchangeable; indeed,before the ideological explosion of 1928-1929, the second term progressivelyreplaced the first in internal economic documents. This interchangeabilitywas perhaps a clue to the fact that the question regarding the natureof the new state born from the Civil War was still unresolved ideologically.And the progressive prevalence of the second term perhaps indicated howreality was in fact resolving the question before the launching of the greatideological operation we have just mentioned confused things again. All ofthis was increasingly cemented by that subjectivism and voluntarism thatwe have already seen developing.The fifth and crucial knot is that represented by Piatakov's own personalcrisis of 1927-1928. These were the years of his exile in Paris as torgpred,of forced inactivity, while in Moscow the "inept" Kuibyshev, to whom theVSNKh had been entrusted, was letting everything that had been built upover the previous years go to rack and ruin. After the Fifteenth PartyCongress (December 1927), Piatakov was sent back to Paris—a clear signof the "respect" which he was accorded—while his second wife and his oldcomrades were first imprisoned and then sent into very different kinds ofexile. Shortly thereafter, in February, he became the first of the Trotskyitesto capitulate, with a statement that his former comrades (Radek first of all)judged a monument of hypocrisy.What part cynicism and hypocrisy played in this choice is, of course,difficult to assess. I am inclined to believe that the motives behindPiatakov's gesture were much more complicated and that his personal crisiswas of a very serious nature (as we shall see in the next section). It is,rather, in Radek's own later "conversion" and behavior that a much purerform of cynicism can be seen. 9 It is undeniable, however, that for Piatakov8In this modified version, Marxism became the heir to Hegelism also as a state-buildingideology (in "extreme" conditions). We have here, I believe, one of the reasons for its greatsuccess in our century, as an important source of "national socialist" ideologies (which ofcourse had many other components). See also fns. 11 and 12.9In Ordzhonikidze's secret fond are preserved a few letters written at the beginning of 1928by Radek to the GPU, the TsKK, and to his wife. Whereas in letters to Trotsky written duringthe same period he posed as a fierce fighter against Stalinism, here he begged for favors andpetty privileges, even before being sent into exile. Especially impressive is a letter of 9 March1928, formally addressed to his wife, but actually written with the knowledge that "others"would read it, as was in fact the case. In this letter, Piatakov is openly accused of hypocrisy.One cannot "sincerely" capitulate too soon, writes Radek, adding that when he himself does, in