World Communism Today, by Martin Ebon; American Communism, by Jame…d G. A.

Werner; Pattern for World Revolution, by Yps | commentary 1/8/18, 1&58 PM

World Communism Today, by

Martin Ebon; American
Communism, by James Oneal
and G. A. Werner; Pattern for
World Revolution, by Yps
Bertram D. Wolfe Feb. 1, 1949

What is Communism?

World Communism Today.

by Martin Ebon.
Whittlesey House. 536 Pp. $4.50.

American Communism.
by Oneal And G. A. Werner.
E. P. Dutton & Co. 416 Pp. $5.00.

Pattern For World Revolution.

by “Ypsilon.”
Ziff-Davis. 479 Pp. $3.50.

Since the fate of the European Recovery Plan so largely hinges on blocking
the counter-plan of the world Communist movement, one would expect that
our political science faculties and institutes of Russian studies, our writers
and research workers, would be engaged in a vast and intense effort to
understand that movement. But it is a little frightening to note that the
shreds and tatters of misinformation on which we depend are worthless as
guides to daily action, that our universities are engaged in no such studies,

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/world-communism-today-…ames-oneal-and-g-a-werner-pattern-for-world-revolution-by-ypsilon/ Page 1 of 4
World Communism Today, by Martin Ebon; American Communism, by Jame…d G. A. Werner; Pattern for World Revolution, by Yps | commentary 1/8/18, 1&58 PM

that the little shelf of books which might be used for reference is pitifully
inadequate. In the past year and a half, when such studies should have been
coming out by scores or hundreds, only three American books have appeared
worth keeping on the reference shelf, and the three together do not fill in
more than tiny fragments of the big mosaic map that must be constructed
before our statesmen will be able with some confidence to chart our future
moves in the struggle for European reconstruction.

_____________

So far as it goes, Martin Ebon’s World Communism Today is an amazing tour

de force of single-handed research in a field which should be under
exploration as a vast collective project. On his own, he has waded through
more newspapers, magazine articles, books, and Communist documents than
it would seem possible for a solitary researcher to go through in a single
lifetime. The result is a sort of World Almanac of the Communist parties of
some forty-four countries. A sketchy notion of the milieu, the origins, and the
history of each of the parties in question is given, with thumbnail sketches of
its leaders and some account of recent strategical-tactical operations.

Unfortunately, the task is bigger than any one man, even the industrious and
intelligent Mr. Ebon, can accomplish. His sources are of varied value. The
information is frequently pieced out with superficial, journalese filler (“a
sincere and fanatical German communist” or “an uninspiring wide-mouthed
man whose deep-set eyes lack the spark of brilliance”). Though he has striven
to use his sources critically, they have frequently misled him (thus he wrongly
calls the Spanish POUM “Trotskyist”; labels as “conservative” the wartime
Polish underground, which was dominated by the Socialist and Peasant
Parties; swallows whole the fellow-traveler literature on the Chinese Central
government and misses its basic role as the defender of territorial integrity
and independence during a time of attempted partition). The general

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/world-communism-today-…ames-oneal-and-g-a-werner-pattern-for-world-revolution-by-ypsilon/ Page 2 of 4
World Communism Today, by Martin Ebon; American Communism, by Jame…d G. A. Werner; Pattern for World Revolution, by Yps | commentary 1/8/18, 1&58 PM

apparatus of theoretical interpretation is weak, so that the facts tend to fly

apart as one reads for lack of a proper intellectual binder. Finally, the book is
as difficult to read as the World Almanac to which I have already compared it.
Yet it represents a heroic, single-handed effort to master a world of material
and, though parts of it are already out of date as I write, it is and will remain
for years an indispensable reference work for every newspaper editor, writer,
and State Department official.

_____________

James Oneal’s book is a bringing up to date, in collaboration with G. A.

Werner, of an earlier work Oneal published on American Communism. It is
not so much of an outside research job as Ebon’s because the first of the two
authors is an American Socialist who watched for years with inner anguish
the inroads of American Communism upon the once flourishing American
Socialist party. His accounts of the early period, when American Communists
were attracted to Russia by its apparent solution of the problems of war and
exploitation, is bitter, ironic, interesting, intermittently illuminating, often
startling. Where it draws on Communist sources it is most valuable. But too
often it depends upon the uncritical use of secondary and tertiary sources, or
it catches one document and misses the next one. Thus the book makes Stalin
“Executive Secretary of the Comintern,” fails to connect the underground
names of its personages with their later “above-ground” names, describes
Trotsky’s deportation to Siberia as a “retreat for his health,” and, most
strangely, speaks of Stalin’s territorial gains at Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam
as “retreats” on his part.

Both the Oneal-Werner and the Ebon books suffer from the fact that they
view the Communist movement—where things are frequently not what they
seem—from the outside. Moreover, both of them, and more particularly the
Oneal-Werner book, miss the fact that the strength of the Communist

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/world-communism-today-…ames-oneal-and-g-a-werner-pattern-for-world-revolution-by-ypsilon/ Page 3 of 4
World Communism Today, by Martin Ebon; American Communism, by Jame…d G. A. Werner; Pattern for World Revolution, by Yps | commentary 1/8/18, 1&58 PM

movement among young idealists lies not in the attractive power of the
depths to which it sinks, but in the fact that, like Satan, it trails the glory of a
“fallen angel.” This sense of once high estate and mighty fall has so far been
communicated successfully only by those who earlier gave their own idealistic
allegiance to the Communist movement. Therein lies the value of Pattern for
World Revolution, which was written by two former secret agents of the
Comintern who felt compelled, for obvious reasons, to use a pseudonym:
“Ypsilon.” Unfortunately, the publisher neglected to get any known person to
vouch for their authenticity, and the American press, suspecting anonymity,
fearing a hoax, or disbelieving true stories so much stranger than forgery or
fiction, has completely ignored the book. Yet it is the most important volume
on the spirit, mood, and practices of the Comintern so far published in
English. And, albeit sketchily and haphazardly, it supplies the theoretical and
philosophical frame we miss so much in Ebon.

Taken together, Pattern for World Revolution and World Communism

Today provide no more than a point of departure for a general, collective,
large-scale research effort which so far has not even started.

_____________

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/world-communism-today-…ames-oneal-and-g-a-werner-pattern-for-world-revolution-by-ypsilon/ Page 4 of 4