The following essay by Eugene Genovese is really an open letter to the left, intended to provoke a discussion, and so we have circulated it to people likely to be provoked. Here are their responses and Genovese's reply. Since "The Question" is important, we will publish a selection of further correspondence in a future issue.—Ens.
The Question: "What did you know, and when did you know it?" For at the age of fifteen I became a Communist, and, although expelled from the party in 1950 at age twenty, I remained a supporter of the international movement and of the Soviet Union until there was nothing left to support. Now, as everyone knows, in a noble effort to liberate the human race from violence and oppression we broke all records for mass slaughter, piling up tens of millions of corpses in less than three-quarters of a century. When the Asian figures are properly calculated, the aggregate to our credit may reach the seemingly incredible numbers widely claimed. Those who are big on multiculturalism might note that the great majority of our victims were nonwhite.