PILGRIMAGE TO UTOPIA

Whether Communism, as a sociological or political system, exists in any country of the world today, is still the moot question in contemporary society. One of the many things that Father Drane's account of his travels in Russia reveals is that it most certainly is not the system prevalent in the U.S.S.R. Happily for the reader , the book demonstrates what the U.S.S.R. is not , and it does not burden him with pro or con ideological arguments. He lets the old Marx to Engele to Berlin routine lie quietly in the historical morgue until the last chapter, which is devoted to Marxism and its consequences. Instead we are given an interesting, and, at time, disquieting picture of everyday life in Russia. It is interesting in the overall picture it gives of the four classes of Soviet society (each class with its own status symbols) and how they react to what they may own, wear and eat. It is disquieting because of the many reprehensible factors found in U.S.S.R. society that are part of our own. His account highlights the disbelief of people in a democracy who wonder why, and how, the millions of people in Russia put up with and even actively support such a system through ""faith"" in the government. In many respects Father Drane's look at the Russian ""Utopia"" makes us look at ourselves.