SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE COMMUNIST WORLD

by Peter Stafford ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1967

In spite of the more alluring attributes of the title, it is a limiting one, since Mr. Stafford's overview of what has now been called the ""Bolshe vita"" extends over many aspects of life behind the Iron bedroom curtains and has a broad sociological value. With the exception of two countries, he has visited them all, analyzed their literature, and reaches the conclusion that no political ethos can change basic hopes and needs... Confucius said ""bad government is more destructive than tigers"" and China was to find that family life disintegrated--first under Mao's advocacy of emancipation, then his revocation thereof; Albania proceeded from old-fashioned to Marxist strictures; Bulgaria endorsed libertinage--for the privileged;gloomy Czechoslovakia made only ""modest claims for untrammeled and unofficial sex"" and still suffered a declining birth and marital rate; the Wall has not succeeded in crushing all individual desires in East Germany; in Hungary, morality ""eroded""; and so it goes through Poland, Rumania, Yugoslavia, and finally the Soviet Union which has made several transitions--from Lenin's gospel that ""wild excesses"" were ""reactionary"" to today's post-Ice Age thaw--love at first sight, divorce three months later.... These are but a few of the evaluations made in an admirable audit--soundly synchronizing observation and interpretation and retaining its objective: to tell the story in ""human terms.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Julian Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION