THE GREAT RETREAT: The Growth and Decline of Communism in Russia

by N. S. Timasheff ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 1945

Here's a book to give aid and comfort to those who would bolster their arguments as to the failure of Communism and ""the great retreat"" to state capitalism. There's an enormous amount of interesting and challenging information on the successive phases by which Communism advanced to a certain level -- and then retreated until Russia was forced to accept reversal and denial in order to achieve victory against the enemy. Timasheff paints a rosy picture of the path on which Old Russia was set, claiming that the actual achievements of Communism merely parallel what would have been arrived at under the plans projected in 1917; that in other respects, -- culturally -- intellectually -- socially -- Russia has been thrown back a century. He concedes only meagre and negative achievements, charges the Communist Revolution with being a dangerous sickness, and challenges the Democracies to avoid the danger of resurgence of Communism in backward countries through wisdom and vision. Much of what Timasheff advances is revealing. Unfortunately, his determination to prove his own thesis weights his evidence unfairly.

Pub Date: March 15, 1945

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1945

Categories: NONFICTION