Terrorism and the State: A Critique of Domination by Fear. - book reviews

CORRESPONDENCE IN MEMORIAM TAMARA DEUTSCHER

Only now have we learned that our good friend of many years, Tamara Deutscher, the widow of Isaac Deutscher, died last August. My wife and I used to visit her every time we were in London. We spent long evenings talking in her book-lined living room, and the sad fact that this extraordinary woman, Tamara, is no longer alive, and that we will never see her again, leaves only our memories.

Tamara came to know Isaac Deutscher in London during the Second World War, both being political refugees from Poland. In England, Isaac Deutscher created for himself a highly successful career as a political commentator (Economist, Observer, etc.). However, he wanted to use his erudition for something more lasting, and he decided to elucidate the course of the Russian Revolution through the lives and actions of its main personalities. Tamara agreed at once although it meant a financial retrenchment.

The results were the critical biographies of Stalin and Trotsky (in three volumes) and one of Lenin was to crown his interpretation of the revolution. He was, regrettably, unable to finish it as he died, far too early, in 1967. He was then only sixty years old. During all this time he had also published a stream of articles dealing with the burning issues of the day. The most important ones were collected and published, some of them posthumously, by Tamara with introductions written by her.

In all this immense labor of many years: endless research, writing, rewriting, Tamara was intensely involved. She acted as his sounding board and he discussed every idea with her. He called her "his most severe critic" and dedicated the Stalin biography to her.

The biographies generally earned high praise and, naturally, they were condemned by the dogmatic members of the Third and Fourth Internationals who considered themselves guardians of the only truth.

CORRESPONDENCE

It was impossible to speak about the terrible pain the loss of her beloved husband must have caused her. I never touched on the subject. In his memory she established the "Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize" given every year for the publication of a significant contribution in the field of Marxist studies.

Tamara did not withdraw into passivity. Her temperament and active brain would not permit it and an opportunity offered itself. Knowing well her learning and critical acumen, E.H. Carr, professor of history at Cambridge, invited her to collaborate in his history of Soviet Russia, which eventually grew to fourteen volumes. Tamara did not participate in all of these, yet it meant again year of concentrated intellectual effort.

In one of his prefaces, Professor Carr expressed his "warm gratitude" for her unstinting help in this monumental undertaking. Between 1968 and 1987 she also contributed fifteen essays on important and timely problems to the New Left Review. The editors highly valued her calm and considered judgment.

All her life Tamara remained a socialist in the classical Marxist tradition; she would not have abandoned her convictions for one moment.

In Tamara we lost an unforgettable friend, one of those rare, authentic human beings whose death leaves a permanent void. Her life was an inspiration to many people. We loved her.

COPYRIGHT 1991 Monthly Review Foundation, Inc.
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