Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

by David Remnick

“Words that are not backed up by life lose their weight,” Havel wrote, “which means that words can be silenced in two ways: either you ascribe such weight to them that no one dares utter them aloud, or you take away any weight they might have, and they turn into air. The final effect in each case is silence: the silence of the half-mad man who is constantly writing appeals to world authorities while everyone ignores him; and the silence of the Orwellian citizen.”

The edifying thirst for freedom degenerates into the delirious fever of violence which ultimately extinguishes the flames of the revolution.”