LET'S VISIT RUSSIA

by Julian & John C. Caldwell Popescu ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1968

Standard Visit-ing, sloppy viewing. Strewn through the contents--terrain, climate, constituent republics, history, industry, agriculture, cities, village life, education, sports, science and technology--are such half-truths as identifying the people of the Baltic republics as Scandinavian in origin, the people of Moldavis as Rumanians; such errors as adding one million, nine hundred square miles to the territory of Kirghiz; such barbarisms as designating unidentified Eastern invaders as ""barbarians""; such dismemberments as attributing Ivan III's success to ""hacking and hewing"" his opponents. And what are American children supposed to make of a statement like this; ""prayers are never said (in schools) because religious instruction is banned."" The summary of post-World War II relations between Russia and the United States attributes the Cold War to ""broken (Russian) promises,"" characterizes the Russians as always backing down ""when faced with force."" (But ""The Vietnam War. . . could be solved if it were not for Russia's continuing to give aid to the North Vietnamese and to urge them to go on fighting."") Misapprehension + misinterpretation = misinformation.

Pub Date: May 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: John Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION