SINCE STALIN: An Assessment of Communist Power

by Brian Crozier ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 21, 1970

If you think anticommunism passe, if you are reluctant to believe human nature capable of the insane depravity habitual to communists, Crozier is here to tell you about past, present and future threats from Communist Parties. The fanatical ways are exemplified by Mao's praise of Stalin in his greetings to the 20th Party Congress, despite their chronic enmity -- a pitch of organizational fever presumably unknown to British politicians. The present occupies most of the book: Crozier warns us that polycentrism means ""competitive subversion""; peaceful coexistence is a subterfuge; communism cannot evolve in an acceptably libertarian direction because it requires ""a power monopoly."" These more and less plausible claims are argued with insulting illogic and a regard for facts which wavers between the dimwitted and the disingenuous. Musing that communism was unnecessary for modernizing Russia, Crozier points out that Sweden and Spain also have welfare programs; reviewing Sino-Soviet relations, he asserts that the Chinese and the Soviets agree on a policy of ""fullest possible assistance to national liberation movements"" (so that's why the Chinese obstruct the passage to North Vietnam of Soviet aid, which has yet to include missiles). Crozier is a former editor of the London Economist, but what we get here is anything but their lucid, dry class positions. There are plenty of equally certified anti-communist writers who know, e.g., that the ""united front"" with Chiang disabled Mao, not vice versa, and who are capable of discussing industrialization problems in a serious way -- for that matter, there are lots more cutting analyses of Stalin's legacy. Otiose and unreliable from any point of view.

Pub Date: Dec. 21, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward-McCann

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION