RUSSIAN ASSIGNMENT

Not an attempt at political analysis but an informal and sympathetic eye-witness account of life among the Russians in Moscow and environs. Having mastered the language, Vice-Admiral Stevens saw and heard at first hand and from servants, farmers, tradesmen, civil employees, etc. One sees through his eyes the plodding, patient, courageous, generous character of the broad mass of Russians who, the author demonstrates, deserve an incomparably better regime than they are getting. There are beautiful things in Russia, -- their extravagant theatre for example,- but there is a universal lack of the most ordinary comforts, and the constant threat of the slave labor camps is omnipresent. All this is not news, but, told as direct experience by a warm and observant human being, it has a freshness and authenticity that makes informative as well as entertaining reading.