WORKER'S PARADISE LOST

The tone of the book is set in its dedication: ""To the Peoples of Russia: the first and worst victims of communism."" Divided into several parts--""Verdict of Five Decades,"" ""Myths and Realities,"" ""What Price Communism?"" and ""Whither Russia?""--the author pays scant attention to the fact that the USSR, like all nations, is an evolving, dynamic political system. There is little real change for him between the days of Stalin and those of Khrushchev. For example, speaking of resistance to communism within the Soviet Union today (which does not exist, contrary to the author) he quotes a statement by the head of the secret police: ""Abolish the GPU and we are through."" That was said, however, in the early Thirties. This preposterous book, written with the evangelical fervor more appropriate to the anti-communism of the middle Fifties, has its facts, but they are put together in such a manner that they are meaningless except as ideological rubbish.