A Word to the Readers

Dear Comrades: These are difficult times—no doubt about it. They are difficult for everyday work and life, and tormenting for the mind, memory, and conscience. And they are extremely difficult for our journal as well. Like other Party publications, it too has been abandoned (of course not by us) to the caprice of fate. But it is not merely our fate or the fate of some other individual. It is essentially the fate of the entire Party. It is now obvious that the captains of this ship were the first to abandon it. Whatever ship it was, it was kept afloat thanks to millions of honest people, far from any center of power and the wielding of it, who believed in the ideals of social justice. Just yesterday they were needed, appeals were made for their help and support, but today they do not merit even parting words of appreciation and gratitude.