The Communists apply to human beings the well-known principle of conditioned
reflexes that explains much of the behavior of animals.
These reflexes, which are the basis of Socialist medical science and
psychology, are often called "Pavlovian reflexes" after the Russian
physiologist, Ivan Pavlov,[1]
who was the first to conduct systematic experiments, chiefly on dogs, to
determine the exact nature of this neurophysiological reaction. Actually,
however, the phenomenon that Pavlov investigated was well known for centuries
and extensively used in practice to train animals. The most famous of Pavlov's
experiments was performed by giving a dog a chunk of meat at the ringing of a
bell. After this has been done several times, the dog's reflexes are so conditioned
that the animal will salivate abundantly when it hears the bell although he has
no meat before him. For many centuries before Pavlov, however, conditioned
reflexes were used; for example, by gypsies to produce dancing bears. A small
bear cub is walked over a sheet of metal under which there is a slow burning
fire. As the sheet metal becomes warm, the soles of the little bear's feet
begin to pain him and he lifts one foot after another, shifting his weight
alternately to cool the soles of his feet. While he is doing this, drums are
beaten. After this training has been repeated several times, the neurological
association between the sound of the drums and the movement of the feet is
established, and ever thereafter, the bear, although full grown, will begin to
"dance" whenever he hears the beating of the drums. Such, reduced to
its simplest terms, is the procedure for producing conditioned reflexes in
irrational animals.
When the Communists apply this technique to their human subjects, they must
first reduce their victims to the condition of animals.
When one destroys in man the moral and intellectual foundation of his being,
his consciousness of personal identity and superiority, and thus deprives him
of control over his own faculties by reason and will, man ceases to be a
superior being. There is no longer any difference between man and animal. He
will submit, as do animals, to biological impulses.
That is why, when he encountered unexpected opposition in a cell, Turcanu
affirmed: "Your resistance is in vain. This system has been perfected and used
for twenty-five years[2]
and so far it has never failed. You will become convinced of this yourselves. I
do not work haphazardly. " The prison's warden, the Bolshevik Lieutenant
Dumitrescu, stated several times in more than one cell, a little before the
beginning of "re-education": "Even if you were made out of
granite, you would not be able to resist all the way. Shortly you will see that
I do not lie. " At Pitesti, at least as far as the basic method was
concerned, the experimenters improvised nothing; from the very first they
applied a method that had worked innumerable times and whose results could be
predicted with certainty.
How the system was elaborated and tested, I do not know, but its effects
were certain. A mere reference to the tortures was like Professor Pavlov's bell
or the gypsies' drum. A word was sufficient to trigger the reflex that pain and
degradation had created, and the man was at once paralyzed and behaved as the
experimenters wished.
Beginning with the prisoners from the "correction" category and
from labor camps, the "re-educators" trained a group sufficiently
large to handle the other categories of prisoners. This operation was
facilitated by the distribution of the students among cells, which held from
five to fifteen persons, who were thus always together but completely isolated
from contact with others, since the cells were locked and shuttered from the outside
both day and night. This isolation in small units facilitated the operation.
At first only a few, then more and more, and finally all the students went
through "re-education. " And all became finally, no matter how
long they resisted, mindless docile creatures of which the supervisors made
further use according to a well established plan. There where no exceptions.
Only those who were so lucky as to die under torture and those who,
profiting by some oversight on the part of their tormentors, found a way to
commit suicide, escaped the transformation.
Men who had for two years, day after day, night after night, defied the
tortures and the bullets of the Communist Securitate, crumbled little by little
under the Pavlovian technique and, overwhelmed by despair, terror, incertitude,
were metamorphosed into zombies.
What radical transformations take place in the soul of one whose right of
biological self-destruction is denied, who for years on end is kept in a state
of living death with an ingenuity truly Satanic? What can survive systematic
menticide? Heroism? Self-sacrifice? Ethical convictions? Idealism? Had the
pagans during the persecutions of Christians used Communist methods, it is
probable that the Christian calendar would number fewer saints and martyrs.
What could be more depressing than this thought? Among the victims of the
Communists, there are no heroes -- there can be no heroes.
Is heroism perhaps a simple state of psychic exaltation nourished by
sentiment that depends on events and environment? Under the conditions created
at Pitesti, not only could no one become a hero, but the very concept of
heroism was obliterated.
If some day in the future it becomes possible thoroughly to investigate the
applications of Bolshevik techniques and the profound mutations of the human
psyche induced by them, civilized mankind will arraign and damn not the
ephemeral creatures who carried out the techniques of torment, but the
perennial originators of the appalling techniques that reduce man to a level
inferior to that of animals.
After the first phase of procedure initiated in Hospital Room Four was
completed and the victims had been reduced to the desired psychopathological
state of passive desperation and animal helplessness, they were judged ripe for
the next stage in the process. They were ready now for the second phase in
which the prisoners would be brought to denounce one another spontaneously and
without any instigation by the prison authorities.
Transfers from one cell to another were effected by prison authorities as
Turcanu directed. They gave him a free hand to shuffle prisoners around as he
thought expedient in the "unmasking" program, and he had at his
disposal the entire list of condemned men, by which he could switch prisoners
back and forth in various combinations. To hide his role, the transfers were
always made by the prison guards on orders from above.
Turcanu had transfers made so that a group of students who had passed
through the training given in Hospital Room Four shared a cell with a group of
students who had heard nothing of the "unmasking" technique and
naturally entertained -- could entertain -- no suspicion of the newcomers, who
seemed to have been placed with them only by one of the seemingly random
rearrangements of prisoners that the prison authorities frequently decreed. For
two or three weeks, the "un-masked" students started discussions,
criticized the Communist regime, and exchanged information seeking to loosen
the tongues of their unsuspecting companions who were next in line for "re-education",
in order to elicit from each at least several compromising statements for later
use. Such statements were sought as a means of destroying, when the time come,
first, the confidence and trust that the students then reposed in one another
(for at that time no one who had not been "re-educated" could even
imagine what was in store for them) and second, their natural aversion to
Communism.
The prisoners, who were deprived of all ordinary materials for writing, had
long been accustomed secretly to use soap tablets for memoranda and even
communication between cells. The newcomers -- complying of course, with the
instructions of the masters -- took advantage of this custom and wrote down on
these tablets everything they thought could be helpful in the coming
"unmaskings. " They concealed these inscribed tablets of soap and
transmitted them to Turcanu or his assistants, either in the morning when they
were taken out of the cell to the lavatory, or when they were called out by
guards, ostensibly summoned to the main office, but really so that they could,
without arousing suspicion, report to Turcanu in the corridor outside the cell.
At other times, these soap tablets were hidden in predetermined places in the
washroom, and collected, after the night lock-up, by agents of the Securitate.
The records on soap were also given furtively to prison guards, to the persons
who distributed the food, or to others whom the "re-educated" could
on occasion approach in ways that excited no remark among their unsuspecting
cellmates.
The "re-educators", of course, had no need for the information
thus obtained and recorded; it could have been extracted anyway during the
"unmaskings. " This procedure was ordained for three reason: first,
it confirmed each of the "re-educated" in his conditioned habit of
hypocrisy and treachery toward his intended victims and simultaneously bound
the "re-educated" together by their common guilt; second, the
surreptitious provoking and recording of compromising statements kept the
"re-educated" in a state of constant vigilance and anxiety, for they
realized that if, by some lingering sentiment of decency or sheer oversight,
they were inefficient in their assumed roles, they would be given more
"re-education" themselves; and finally, the production of such
devastatingly complete and accurate information at the psychological moment
would take the victims completely by surprise and stun them, so to speak, by a
blow from inside.
After some weeks, when it was thought that enough compromising data had been
collected, the "re-educators" in the cell were put into action. At
that time, one of the leaders of the O. D. C. C., usually Turcanu himself,
entered the cell escorted by several of his collaborators. The appearance of
this contingent both reminded the "re-educated" in the cell of what
they had undergone, thus triggering their conditioned reflexes, and had the
practical effect of bringing in a team of strong bully-boys to avert the
possibility that, as had happened in Hospital Room Four, a desperate resistance
might make necessary the direct intervention of the prison authorities. The
contingent that escorted Turcanu on such occasions was composed of well-fed,
vigorous and husky men, not to mention Turcanu himself, who was truly a
Hercules by comparison with the students who had been physically debilitated by
the starvation diet to which they had been long and continuously subjected.
Considering the fact that the bullyboys were precisely the trusties who did the
work of distributing the food to each cell, it is obvious how they obtained
ample nourishment, despite the official doctrine that all prisoners are
"bandits" who must not be allowed "to live on the back of the
working people. " The intelligentsia who, from behind the scenes, directed
the whole sinister tragedy, had arranged even such details in advance so that
nothing could happen to disturb the performance of their play.
After the contingent of "re-educators" entered a cell, a
"meeting" began with a discourse, usually by Turcanu himself,
consisting of the same stereotyped phrases that had been uttered in Hospital
Room Four: "the need for 're-education'", "bandits who oppose
it", "the necessity of breaking all resistance by no matter what
means", etc., etc. [3]
At the conclusion of the "speech", all the inmates of the cell,
including the "re-educated" were asked to make their
"unmasking" ("self-denouncement") immediately. The answer
of the students was always the same, and likewise Turcanu's reaction: he gave
the signal by lifting either his cap or his hand, and then, as in Hospital Room
Four, began the beatings. But now the confusion and dismay of the victims was
even greater, for they saw among their assailants their own cellmates, whom
they had until that very moment regarded as brothers. Now these trusted
comrades were suddenly dealing them desperate blows, in the back more often
than not. How could they know the motivation for a transformation apparently
instantaneous?
The "re-educators" exploited to the utmost that first moment of
bewilderment. A man who had been a literary student described that moment to me
in these words:
"When Turcanu ended his speech I thought he was crazy. And we all
looked at one another in astonishment. But only a few moments elapsed. He
raised his cap. That very instant, a friend, probably the best friend I had
before we were arrested and a man in whom I had blind faith, struck me full in
my face with his fist, delivering so furious a blow that I was dazed. I looked
at him in utter terror. My hands hung down, suddenly powerless. I was not
capable of saying one word; I was simply unable to ask him why. He continued to
strike me with the same desperation. I could not muster even the slightest
resistance. At first I thought this was a nightmare or that all our minds had
been suddenly darkened by a collective madness. Finally I tried to ask him
something; I do not know anymore what it was. His reply was a rain of blows
with his fists accompanied by facial expressions so hideous that they seemed to
hurt me even more than the pummeling. It was only then that I somehow collected
my wits and tried to defend myself. But from behind, another student, who had
been brought into my cell at the same time as my friend some two weeks before,
attacked me. This fellow was armed with a cudgel. I could not imagine where he
had obtained it! I could not get out of the way anymore. I started to strike in
desperation, at random, wherever I could. I tried to open a path towards the
wall to protect my back, but someone with a cudgel landed a powerful blow on my
left arm. Then another cudgel descended on my head. My body trembled. Other
blows followed; they rained upon me. In the cell a frightening brawl was taking
place. Groans, the thuds of cudgels, curses were blent into a chaotic uproar.
"After a while the cudgels broke, and the fight became body to body.
But we were far fewer and weaker than our assailants. One by one we fell to the
floor, physically unable to rise. Later, I lapsed into unconsciousness. How
long I remained in that state, I do not know. When I came to, I was covered
with blood and black and blue all over. My body was numb, yet it ached in every
fibre. I could not move. My companions were in the same state. Turcanu had left
the room, leaving us in the hands of his collaborators, the men, (including my
erstwhile bosom friend) who had been brought into our cell two weeks before and
who, as was now obvious to us, had come already appointed as our 're-education
committee', a position they now openly assumed. What had just happened had
created a bottomless abyss between us and them. Turcanu could breathe freely,
for none of his men could now let him down. But at that bitter moment I did not
imagine -- could not have believed -- that, in a few months, I myself would
reach a condition in which I tortured others in order to 're-educate' them.
"
When the young man finished that narrative -- this was several years after
the "unmaskings" -- an indescribable despair could be read on his
face. Then he concluded: "By an unimaginable fatality, we became the
gravediggers of our own aspirations, of our own souls. For never again will we be
able to raise our heads. Christians once died happily for their faith. But we,
also Christians, could not attain that happiness. We became the tools of the
Communism that we heartily detested, in order mutually to destroy ourselves, in
order to bury our dearest hopes in unique madness, hopes that we had nourished
with much suffering and worldly renunciation. It was as if Satan had grabbed us
from the hands of God. If I had then an opportunity to commit suicide, I would
have wanted nothilig more. But now, in my present state, I lack even the
courage to do it. I may seem to be whole, but in reality I am only the wreck of
myself, discredited in the eyes of my friends, and despised by my enemies. And
yet, in essence, we were guilty of nothing, really. "
In those scenes, the ratio of forces was usually two to one. Furthermore,
the "re-educated" had been equipped with bludgeons, cudgels, boards,
and straps, and they were inspired by the strange induced hatred that drove
them to reduce all prisoners to a common level, so that no one could look at
another with accusing eyes. In that furious urge they vented their own agony
born of the knowledge that they had been unable to resist, were not able to die
before submitting.
Seldom did the guards have to intervene. But sometimes, despite the
disproportion of numbers and strength, the desperation and resistance that
followed the first moment of surprise and bewilderment, made it necessary to
bring in re-enforeements for the "re-educators. " The warden,
Dumitrescu, always supervised through the peephole the progress of the
"unmasking" inside, especially at the very beginning, which was the
critical juncture.
In general, the first beating lasted between three and four hours, but in
some cases it lasted through nine consecutive hours, for desperation
awakens in man forces little known. The students were one by one eliminated
from the fight. After each man had been beaten to immobility or
unconsciousness, his skull cracked or his ribs broken, he was stripped and
subjected to a minute personal search. Every article that could conceivably be
used for protection or to commit suicide was taken and confiscated. Then the
naked and inert bodies were shoved under the bunk-bed. As each man recovered
consciousness, the beatings were resumed by the "re-education committee.
"
For days, those in the "position of unmasking" were subjected to
this brutal regimen. Unable to resist or to defend themselves, kept under
stringent surveillance, to prevent them from commiting suicide, their minds
gradually succumbed to the utter despair that the "unmasking"
technique was designed to produce. And they abandoned themselves to the
tortures, passively waiting with blighted consciousness for whatever was to
happen to them.
The methods used in "unmaskings" were basically uniform. All means
of attaining the calculated goal were, of course, sanctioned, and if there were
some variations in the administration of torture, they were merely small
details that the criminal mentalities of the various bosses were permitted to
introduce into the fixed pattern of procedure.
|
1) |
At the time of the Bolshevik capture of Russia, Pavlov, who was almost
seventy years old, failed to escape from Russia, but was not liquidated. He
held the strange notion that scientific research was "non-political",
and placed the results of his work at the disposal of the Bolsheviks, who
rewarded him with a handsome pension and every facility for continuing his
researches until his death in 1936. Of course, Pavlov conducted many other
and more complicated experiments to reduce animals to total prostration by
producing conflicts between established reflexes. These principles are, of
course, applied by the Communists to destroy the victim's rationality, but
the subject is too extensive to be discussed in this note. For further
information, see any good treatise on neuro-psychological phenomena. For a
brief outline, see Chapter Two of Edward Hunter's Brainwashing, New
York, 1956; or later reprints. (Tr. ) |
|
2) |
This means that the system used at Pitesti was put in operation in Russia
immediately after the aged Pavlov spent three months in the Kremlin as the
almost royal guest of Ulyanov, alias Lenin, for whom he prepared a secret
400-page manual on the ways of inducing conditioned reflexes and inhibitions
in human beings. The first film to train Bolshevik secret police in Pavlovian
methods was, so far as is known, produced in 1928. (Tr. ) |
|
3) |
Communist verbiage normally follows stereotyped patterns, but it may be
noteworthy that the repetition here would serve more forcefully to remind the
"re-educated" of the preliminaries to their transformation. (Tr.
) |