Book Review: U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe, the Prophet Outcast
| Published date | 01 June 1965 |
| Author | Richard A. Pierce |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000225 |
| Date | 01 June 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
268
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
fundamentally
no
different from
the
problem
in
many
parts
of
North
America.
University
of
Toronto
D.P.
PUTNAM
U.S.S.R.
and
Eastern
Europe
RUSSIAN
POLITICAL
THOUGHT.
A
Concise
History.
By
S.
V.
Utechin.
1963.
(New
York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger.
Toronto:
Burns
&
MacEachern.
xvi,
320pp.
$6.95)
Professor
Utechin's
book
is
a
most
welcome
contribution
to Russian
studies.
The
author
surveys
Russian
political
thought
from
the
days
of
Kievan
Rus
to
the
post-Stalin
era.
The bulk of his
work
is
devoted
to
the
nineteenth and
twentieth
centuries.
A
concise
history
of
Russian
political
thought
will
be
of
great
help
to
students
of
Russian
history
and
politics,
but
its
very
conciseness
sometimes
lends
itself
to
omission
or
oversimplification.
Thus,
while
the
Orthodox
faith
did
create a
feeling
of
separate
identity
or
pre-
national
consciousness
in
Russia
earlier
than
in
Western
Europe,
it
might have
been
mentioned
that
an early national
consciousness was
also
typical
of
East
Central
Europe
where
it
was
the result
not
of
a
different
religious
affiliation
but a
reaction
to
the
German
"Drang
nach
Osten".
One
can
question the
author's
claim
for
Peter
the Great
that
"the
very
idea of
a
reforming
absolute
monarch
emerged
in
Western
Europe
under
the
influence
of
his
personality
and
activities"
(p.
38).
While
Peter
justifiably
attracted
a
great
deal
of
attention
in
Western
Europe
and
particularly
in
France,
he
was
essentially
useful
to the
French
Phi7osophes
as
a
vehicle
for
their
conception
of
enlightened
absolutism,
a
conception
which was
already
in
existence
when
Peter
came
to the
throne.
Voltaire's
Histoire
de
la
Russie
sous
Pierre
le
Grand
was
intended
to
propagandize this
idea.
The
chapters
on
nineteenth
century
political
thought
cover
more
familiar
ground, while those
on
post-1917
developments
are
of
great
interest
and analyze
much
recent
material.
It
is
a pity
that
the
author
fails
to
discuss
the
opposition
trends
within
the
Communist
Party
of
the
Soviet
Union
in
the
nineteen-twenties.
Professor
Utechin's
able
book
will
fill
many
gaps and
it
is
to
be
hoped
that
he
will proceed
to
write
more
extensively
on
the
subject.
In
particular,
it
is
the
pre-1800
period
which
is
still largely
inaccessible
to
students
either
because
they
lack
a
knowledge
of
Russian
or
because
the
original
literature
is
not
available
in
most
university
libraries.
University
of
Toronto
ANNA
M.
CIENCIALA
THE
PROPHET
OUTCAST.
Trotsky:
1929-1940.
By
Isaac
Deutscher.
1963.
(New
York:
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
xv,
543pp.
$10.00)
This
is
the
third
and
final
volume
of
what
seems
certain
to
be
the
definitive
work
on Leon
Trotsky.
In
The
Prophet
Armed
(1954),
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