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"Our laughter" and "their laughter" are no abstractions: they are divided by an abyss of social significance.
What, then, will be the comedy and laughter brought to the world by the young proletarian class which took power in October and, holding it firmly in its strong hands, is advancing to final victory?
Will this laughter be the result of idle fun and merrymaking after a good meal or an attempt to escape from life's adversities? Will it be mild irony at the humorous misfortunes of a lovable crank?
No. Laughter in Russia is traditionally different. It is bound with the works of such immortal writers as Gogol, Chekhov and SaltykovShchedrin, and its characteristic feature has always been social exposure.
From the mild irony of Chekhov, through the bitterness of Gogol's "laughter through tears," to the swishing lash of Shchedrin's pamphlets and satire.
What will be the laughter which is to take the place of that of Chekhov, Gogol and Shchedrin?
Will it follow the line of carefree American guffaws or preserve the tradition of the bitter laughter of Russia's nineteenth-century comics?
All of us will have to be present at the birth of the new type of laughter, nay, take an active part in writing a new page in the world history of humour and laughter, just as the Soviet Union has written a new page in the history of social structures.
The time has not yet come for us to indulge in carefree laughter: socialism has not yet been built. So there is no call for light-heartedness.
Laughter is a new kind of weapon. A type of light gun, very effective in cases where there is no need to employ heavy tanks of social wrath.
Pamphlet, satire, laughter in the stifling atmosphere of nineteenthcentury tsarist Russia and everywhere in the twentieth century, with the exception of Russia which has become the U.S.S.R., have served as vehicles of protest. In our country the task of laughter is to kill off the enemy, just as it is the task of infantry to flood enemy trenches after heavy artillery has cleared the way for the sharp bayonet. There, laughter announces the beginning of battle; here it heralds our victory.
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