Book Review: Ideology, Politics, and Government in the Soviet Union
| Date | 01 March 1963 |
| Published date | 01 March 1963 |
| Author | A. David Levy |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206301800125 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK
REviEw
113
Indeed,
in
April
1958,
as
Dallin
points
out,
Mikoyan
was
able
to
make
the
amazing
statement:
"Were
it
not
for
two
world
wars
Germany,
I
think,
would
be
richer
than
America."
The
reader
can
only
share
Dallin's
hope
that
the
Soviet
leaders
will
be
wise
and far-sighted
enough
to avoid
the
wars
which
have
"historically
marked" the
decay
of
empires.
Mc"ril
University
JOHN
GREER
NicHoLsoN
IDEOLOGY,
POLrrICS,
AND
GOVERNMENT
IN
THE
SOVIET
UNION.
An
Intro-
duction.
By
John
A.
Armstrong.
1962.
(New York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger.
Toronto:
Burns
&
MacEachern.
xiv,
160pp.
$5.25.)
This
volume
qualifies
as
a
truly
Gulliverian
stride
for
the
beginner
toward
a
sound
grasp
of Soviet
Communism.
But
the
image
ceases
to
be
valid
in
assessing
this
book's
usefulness
for
those
already
familiar
with
the
salient
features
of
the
subject
and
who
long
for
a
reliable,
undistorted
perspective
of
the
whole.
Soviet
Communism
is
best
equated
to
a
labyrinth
of
interconnected
corridors.
Professor
Armstrong
describes
this
labyrinth
by
marking
it
off
into eight
segments-the
chapters
of
the
book.
But
this
is
strictly
a
device
of
convenience.
Never
are
the
divisions
allowed
to
become
too
neat
and
separate from
one
another.
Each
chapter
is
liberally
supplied
with
sign
posts pointing
into
others,
so
that
the result
is
a
remarkably
unified whole.
While
brief and
general
in
treatment,
the
book
is
no
mere
vade mecum
of
pat
summations
confirming
a
particu-
lar
point
of
view.
It
bears
the stamp
of
the
author's
wide
scholar-
ship
and,
of course,
that
of his
Western
liberal
approach.
Only
to
the
latter
extent
does
his bias
obtrude
upon
the reader.
This
book's
most
important
chapters
are
its
three
middle
ones-
"The
Party";
"The
Apparatus";
"The
Police
State
and
Its
Limitations".
Here
the
lines
between
appearance
and
reality,
between
fact
and
fancy,
have
always
been
blurred;
and,
except
for
zealots
of
both
Right
and
Left, bringing them
into
focus will
never
really
be
possible.
All
that
can
be
hoped
for
(since
we
are
dealing
with
the
subjective
judgements
of
221
million
Soviet citizens
concerning
their
own
system)
is
that
one
may
distinguish
the
shadowy
elements
of
the
picture
and
perhaps
grasp
some idea
of
its
composition-especially
in
a
general
treatment.
There
are,
first
of
all,
the
gross
statistics
that
describe
the
relation-
ship
of
the
Communist
Party
to
the
population
as
a
whole
and
its
pyramidal
structure.
But
from
there
on,
the
picture
rapidly
diffuses.
Who,
in
terms
of
social
history,
are
the
Central
Committee
members?
To
what extent
may
they
be
taken
to
symbolize
the
historic
destiny
of
the
former
Russian
Empire?
How
do
they,
by
their
political
origins,
reflect
the true
sources
of power
in
Soviet
society?
How
is
the
over-
whelming
majority
on
non-Communist
Party
members
organized
into
supporting the
regime?
How
do
the
dynamics of Soviet
society
reveal
themselves
in
the
enlistment
of
that
support
now
that
the
direct
coercion
of
police
terror
has
been
removed?
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