Book Review: Soviet Politics at Home and Abroad
| Author | Edgar McInnis |
| Published date | 01 March 1947 |
| Date | 01 March 1947 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070204700200109 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book
Reviews
It
will
inevitably
be
read
with absorption.
The question
to
most
readers
will
be,
is
it
true?
Most
"progressives"
will
find
it
as
disturbing
and
incredible
as
ten
years
ago
conservatives found
the
stories
of
Nazi
techniques,
objectives,
and atrocities which
leaked from
Germany.
In
the opinion
of
this
reviewer the
general
picture
presented
of
Soviet
life
is
balanced and
accurate.
That
this
is so
is one
of
the
tragedies
of
our
age.
As
for details,
Kravchenko
gives
frequent
direct
and
lengthy quota-
tions
from
conversations which
took
place
years
ago.
These
conversa-
tions
are in
character
and
there
is
no
reason
to
doubt
their
substantial
truth,
but
this
fictional
literary
device
while
it
makes
for
rapid and
easy
reading
seems
out
of
place
in
an
autobiography
of
this
general import-
ance.
November
1946.
A.
H.
C.
SOVIET
POLITICS
AT
HOME
AND
ABROAD.
By
Frederick
L.
Schuman.
1946.
(New
York:
Alfred
A.
Knopf.
Toronto: The
Ryerson
Press.
663pp.
$4.50)
The
history
of Soviet
Russia
is
well-trodden ground
which
still
offers
fascinating
prospects
to
the
explorer.
So
many
and
diverse, factors
are
involved,
such
a
wealth
of
evidence
on
certain
aspects
and
such
a
lack
of
vital
information
on others,
that
the
task
of
presenting
a
true
and
accur-
ate
picture
continues
to
attract
the
efforts
of
scholars
in
spite
of
the
flood
of
books
devoted
to
the
subject.
At
almost
every
stage
of
the
story
there are
controversial
matters
on
which
arguments
can
be
multiplied
indefinitely
and
on
which
any
conceivable
conclusion
is
likely
to
be
challenged
on
the
basis
of
contradictory
evidence.
Yet
conclusions
are
unavoidable, and
ultimately
they
can
only
be
reached
by
weighing
the
evidence
in
the
light
of
the
author's
own
convictions.
To
those
who
do
not
share
the
outlook
of
a
particular
author,
his
convictions
are
apt
to
appear
biased
or
prejudiced,
and
Professor
Schu-
man
is
not
likely
to
escape
criticisms
on
that
score.
None
the
less,
he
has
made
an
earnest
attempt at
a
balanced
and
temperate
account
of
Soviet
development,
and
has
achieved a
very
considerable
measure
of
success.
If
his
conscious
restraint
occasionally
deprives
his
style
of
some
of
its
usual
vigour, there
is
still
plenty
of
sweep
in
his descriptive
pas-
sages
and his analysis
of
the
dynamic factors
behind the
Bolshevist
development.
His
sketch
of
the main
trends
in
Russian
history
provides
an
illuminating
background for
the revolution
of
1917;
his
frank
dis-
cussion
of
the
chronic
fissions
and
conspiratorial
temper
which
marked
the
Bolshevist movement
under
Tsarism throws
a
real
light
on
some
of
the
characteristics
of
Soviet
policy
in
the
past
thirty
years.
His
treat-
ment
of
the
revolution
itself
concentrates
in
a
useful
fashion
on
the
evolution
of
Bolshevist
policies
and
tactics
rather than
on
an
attempt
at
a
comprehensive
chronology
of
events,
and
in
dealing
with
subsequent
developments
he
is
primarily
concerned
with clarifying
the nature
of
the
problems
and
the
motives which
dictated the
particular
solutions
which
were
adopted.
The
reader
will get
a
clear
picture
of
the
main
course
of
events
and a
very
useful description
of
the
structure
of
the
Soviet
state;
but it
is
in
his
analysis and
interpretation
of
the
main
trends
of
79
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