Time Will Run Back by Henry Hazlitt Read Free Book Online Page A

and so on.”
    His pipe had gone out again. He walked over to his desk and refilled it.
    “These things take considerable arranging,” he went on. “I have increased my own bodyguard, and have agents watching Bolshekov. No doubt he has taken similar measures in my case. He must already know about your presence in Moscow. The bushy-browed comrade who has been following you around for the last two weeks, by the way, is one of my own agents—to protect you. He has sent me daily reports. The long-armed fellow is undoubtedly a spy for Bolshekov. But I shall pretend to know nothing about the matter. Bolshekov and I must act against each other without rousing each other’s suspicions. Action on either side may come any day.”
    Everybody in Wonworld lived in fear. Peter now realized that the Dictator himself lived in as great fear as anyone else. He had to rule by fear because he was himself ruled by fear.
    “As to my public expressions of trust in Bolshekov, which seem to be puzzling you,” Stalenin continued, “you must understand that these are, of course, necessary for my own protection. The more faith I show in Bolshekov in public, the more impossible it is for him to plot against me openly—and the harder it would go with him if it were ever found out that he was acting against me in secret. I keep promoting him, as you know. This not only conceals my own suspicions from him; it also encourages him to think that he can gain his ambitions without violence or treachery. My May Day speech had still another purpose. I may have a paralyzing stroke at any moment and then it would be impossible for me to show myself in public, and Bolshekov would either finish me off or take power without even bothering to finish me off. So why not announce, while I still seem to be in the prime of health, that I am making no more public appearances? Then if I make no public appearances, no ugly rumors will start—or if they start, they will not be believed. Further, I have removed at least one source of the drain on my energies and postponed a second stroke by just that much.... And remember, though I seemed to be placing a lot of power in Bolshekov’s hands, I made it clear that he holds all this power only as my deputy , and that nothing can be done except in my name.”
    He smoked for a while in silence, and once more walked about the room. “You are probably wondering where you fit into all this. I don’t mind telling you that your mother’s accusation has rankled in me all these years. You may have gathered as much from what I said yesterday. She charged that I betrayed the revolution! She said that this, this Won world, is not real communism, not what Marx and Lenin and the great Stalin intended! But it is exactly that! It is the consummation of all that they worked for.... Or at least it would be, if it were not for the lazy and the slovenly and the wreckers and the spies! But she blamed me for all that! She said that Marx called for a classless society and promised that when socialism had been perfected the State would ‘wither away.’ Haven’t I brought a classless society? There are no differences in classes; there are only differences in functions. Somebody has to direct. But how can the State wither away? Under socialism, and by the very concept of socialism, the State owns everything, controls everything, plans everything. How the hell can it wither away?” His questions were directed challengingly at Peter, as if it were he who had made the accusation against him. “Or maybe it could wither away, when we have killed off all the traitors. But there is no end to treason; there is no end—”
    Peter saw that his father was making another conscious effort, as on the day before, to get control of himself.
    “You are probably wondering,” Stalenin now resumed very calmly, “as I said before, where you fit into all this.... During these years, as your mother’s accusation has festered in me, I have thought that my life