 This
is a remarkable book for various reasons. The publisher (author's wife
Mary) notes that the author did not intend this to be another scholarly
work. Rather, he wrote it at the very end of his life in the form of
observations on the world. To hasten its appearance he decided to
publish the work himself. Sadly, he died while in the midst of making
final changes. His wife, his two sons, nephews, as well as his academic
friends joined in the remarkable effort to supplement the original text
with their own recollections pertaining to the specific periods of his
life, a poignant help in making the book more inclusive. It was
published by the Leopolis Press,
a Latin name for Lwów, the birthplace of Adam Ulam who was born there
in
1922 to a well-to-do family of
lawyers, bankers, architects, and businessmen. He was surely born under
more than just one lucky star. His older brother studied mathematics at
Harvard under a special 4-year program, but in the summer of 1939 he
revisited Lwów, with the return planned for September 3rd aboard the MS
BATORY. The father of the boys made frantic efforts to get a U.S.
student visa for Adam, just for one year, and luckily he succeeded.
Suddenly the sailing date was changed to mid-August, and both
sons bid their father good-bye, sailing from Gdynia. The last time
they saw their father was
when they waved to him at the Lwów
railway station. The Ulam family perished in the Holocaust. World
War II began shortly after the boys' landing in New York.
The
second lucky star beaconed with Adam's American education starting with
Brown College in Rhode Island, where the author took to his Ivy League
school like a fish to water. The young newcomer displayed an immense
intellectual curiosity and earned best marks, to be followed by graduate
school at Harvard, all under a special scholarship. His teaching career
was equally impressive: 45 years on the Harvard faculty and for many
years as Director of the Russian Research Center. He became one of the
world's foremost authorities on Russia and the Soviet Union. Blessed
with a photographic memory, he wrote his 18 books in long-hand, for to
him the computer was terra incognita. His talent for foreign
languages was greatly assisted by Harvard's outstanding teachers. This
book contains many examples of his natural humor and ready wit: he
recalls with amusement how one of his students phoned him, in a heavy
German accent, to complain about a D minus grade in British history.
Oops, sorry, this was, an administrative foul‑up, Professor Ulam
explained, and the grade should be an A. The student turned out to be
Henry Kissinger.
Adam
Ulam was primarily a man of ideas and never thought of becoming a man of
action. As he watched a legion of Harvard graduates moving into
important positions in the government or industry, he never felt being
left behind. Two of his works are now classics: The Bolsheviks
and Stalin. Our readers are likely to be quite familiar with this
subject matter, whether through their own experiences or those of their
families. Still, Ulam's magisterial analysis of the sordid history of
the Soviet Union constantly impresses by the lucidity of his narrative
and argument. Chapter 7, "On Being an Expert," is fascinating.
Equally impressive are several concluding chapters related to
perestroika and the events that followed. After Dr. Ulam met Gorbachev
in Russia, it became obvious to him that the latter did not understand
that Eastern Europe had not been converted to communism at all, only
conquered by the Soviet Union, and that once the thereat of suppression
had been lifted, the communist regimes were doomed. He also maintains
that while Stalin's inhumanity was instrumental in making the Soviet
Union an awesome power, by the same token Stalinism was also the
prime cause of communism's
downfall in Europe. Yet, Ulam does not pretend that this downfall
could be anticipated so soon. The fall was one of the surprising events
in 20th century history. As to it main cause, it will be discussed and
argued for generations.
The
author did not have a chance to do the final proofreading, and thus two
factual errors remain: the Warsaw Uprising took place in 1944 and not
1943 (p.48); Mussolini was captured by the Italian partisans near Milan
and not in Naples (p.140).
George
Suboczewski |
