INTRODUCTION Winston Churchill in October, 1939, described Soviet Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." This volume will do much to explain the mystery to the lay reader. Professor Stipp has selected extracts from the best authorities on the various aspects of contemporary Russia, put them in context by a historical introduction, and woven them together with illuminating comments. The whole is a comprehensive, balanced, authoritative and readable guide to Soviet Russia. There are few gilded phrases or slanted adjectives. The reader will feel that he has been given the best that is known about Russia, mostly by scholars of the Western world who have devoted themselves to specialized study of the subject, but on Soviet ideology, the words of the prophets themselves, Marx, Lenin, and Stalin, are presented. The organization of the volume assures a due proportion of historical background, ideological analysis, description of practical activity, and appraisal of future prospects. Professor Stipp's historical contribution, starting with the proposition that misery tends to revolution but does not necessarily do so, makes clear by historical narration how the Revolution of 1905 and the two of 1917 actually did emerge from the century-old misery and oppression of the Russian peasants, once they had become convinced that the Czar was aligned with the gentry and aristocracy against them. The analysis of Communist doctrine in its "religious,” “scientific," and "historical" aspects may seem confusing, but this is inherent in the material. This doctrine had various objectives when it began with Karl Marx, and it changed radically when it was transferred from Germany to Russia and applied to the peasant conditions of that country. It has been at times a doctrine to explain history, to stimulate social revolution, to industrialize a primitive country, to justify the power of ambitious leaders, and to advance Russian national interests in international politics. It has been a theory of society, of history, and of politics; a philosophy of values; a propaganda of revolution and of nationalism; and a guide to revolutionary economic, political and military strategy and administration. Functioning in such multifarious conditions and with such multifarious goals, consistency is not to be expected. The section on practical activities and achievements of the Soviet Union suggests that decisions and policies of its government have been based far more on experience, on trial and error, than on theory. The distribution of decision-making authority between central and local organs; the policies on industry and agriculture; the development of economic incentives tending to approach those in a capitalistic economy; the organization of controls-legal, party, secret police, army-; the actions taken on all of these matters have little relation to theory, though the preference inherent in doctrine for centralization, both geographic and functional, and for subordination of the individual and of groups to the state, provided initial guidance which experience has tended to attenuate. Among the most interesting chapters are those giving the Soviet view of the West and those speculating on the future. The former should provide much food for thought by all Western readers. Professor Barrington Moore's speculation on the future suggests that whether the Soviet Union moves toward more intensive totalitarianism, toward technical rationality, or toward traditional forms of government, depends to a considerable extent on what the West, and particularly the United States, does about it. The final selection by John Plamenatz, while giving due emphasis to the difficulties, strikes the optimistic note that accommodation is possible. "We must," he writes, "look formidable to them and yet not seem to threaten their security. We cannot rely on their good will, but we can, if we act wisely, rely on their patience. Their false philosophy teaches them that time is their ally; and the more they can be persuaded to let time pass quietly, the better for us and for them.” University of Chicago QUINCY WRIGHT |