FOUR ON RUSSIA
Browder, Robert P.
Four on Russia Russian Journey, by William O. Douglas. Doubleday. 255 pp. $4.50. Russia Without Stalin: The Emerging Pattern, by Edward Crankshaw. Viking. 264 pp. $3.75. The Big Thaw, by C. L....
...He sees with especial clarity the magnetism which Moscow exerts on the newly emerging peoples of the East, who react to the paternalistic ideology and economic development of the Soviet Union quite differently from representatives of the West...
...have inspired a flood of descriptive and interpretive literature reminiscent of the early Thirties...
...Surface tensions have been relaxed, but the all-pervasive state control continues...
...Russia and America: Dangers and Prospects, by Henry L. Roberts...
...The success and direction of the present transitional period are still unclear...
...Douglas was impressed with the economic development of Soviet Central Asia...
...Harper...
...Harper...
...Although Justice Douglas (Russian Journey) had no particular background in Russian affairs, his legal training, broad cultural interests, and extensive travels made him a perceptive observer...
...Both are based on visits to Russia in the late summer and early fall of 1955, soon after the initiation of a liberalized Soviet visa policy...
...275 pp...
...Like its predecessors it is distinguished by brilliance of expression, wit, and provocative, often unorthodox, interpretations...
...For the most part, Crankshaw shares the impressions of Douglas, but with a more obvious note of optimism...
...Wisely, he refuses to predict the future...
...His hopes are centered rather on the new possibilities offered by the improving economic situation of the Russian people and their slowly emerging discovery of their own potential power within Russia...
...251 pp...
...The author's conclusions are more cautious than his title would suggest...
...3.50...
...In point of time, the appraisals of Justice Douglas and Edward Crank-shaw take precedence...
...Russia is in a ferment, and nobody in the world can tell what shape her society or her policies will gradually assume as the ferment subsides...
...He suspects that it will be impossible for any Soviet leader to revert to Stalinism, though he does not underestimate the continuing pattern of oppression...
...Foreword by John J. McCloy...
...In their general outlines, the considerations that must go into American policy-making, the various avenues of action, and their respective objectives and consequences would seem to be relatively clear...
...Russia and America by Henry L. Roberts is a sober analysis of many of the problems raised by the other books under review as they affect American relations with the Soviet Union...
...Some of this hopefulness no doubt stems from his comparison of the conditions and atmosphere of 1955 with those of 1947, when he completed his last tour in Russia...
...In particular, he is concerned about our failure to work for the attainable in Eastern Europe, namely Titoism, and our proclivity for the unrealistic, though certainly desirable, goal of "liberation...
...The group held a series of meetings over a two-year period (1953-1955) with the assistance of a professional research staff headed by Roberts...
...The volumes under review are representative of the first category...
...But he found the non-Russian population living under a poorly veiled colonialism marked by many forms of discrimination...
...The Big Thaw, by C. L. Sulzberger...
...He recognizes the greater and more subtle challenges presented the United States by post-Stalinist tactics and strongly urges a more imaginative and understanding response...
...As was true then, the production ranges from careful, knowledgeable, and restrained evaluations to impressionistic and uncritical accounts...
...The title of The Big Thaw clearly reveals the theme of C. L. Sulzberger's survey of Soviet and satellite areas, based on his observations during a recent trip and upon his fund of knowledge as a foreign affairs specialist of the New York Times...
...Crankshaw does not, of course, expect Russia to reject socialism or to cease being a problem to the rest of the world...
...It would be helpful if a great many Americans would take the time to read this study with care in order to understand better the possibilities and limitations of United States foreign policy...
...Despite Justice Douglas' sometimes deceptively elementary commentary, he appears to be well aware of the realities of Soviet rule...
...Economic conditions are better and industry has made phenomenal advances, but the lag in agricultural production continues to be a frustrating problem to the planners and a major factor in the inability of the regime to make greater progress in the improvement of living standards...
...Nationalism and Islam are being, if not crushed, at least emasculated by the policies of Moscow...
...His long-time study of the peoples of Asia gave him an unusual advantage when he received the rare opportunity of travel in central Russia...
...Russia Without Stalin is Edward Crankshaw's third book on the Soviet Union...
...Recent events indicate that the Administration may now be moving hesitantly toward the policy he recommends...
...It is distinguished by its precision of presentation, its sanity, and, at least to the student of the subject, by the familiarity of its considerations...
...The closely reasoned analysis of both John McCloy's foreword and Roberts' text, though they represent the considered judgment of their authors, draw heavily upon the results of the study and discussion of their subject by an extremely able group of informed men brought together for this purpose by the Council of Foreign Relations...
...This is not to reflect in any way upon its value—quite the contrary—but to welcome its re-affirmation of the fact that there are no panaceas, trick moves, or easy answers for the problems posed...
...It is replete with facts and figures, historical background, description and interpretation, but all are presented in such an eminently readable and interesting fashion that anyone wishing to learn more about the Soviet enigma can open it with an assurance of pleasure as well as instruction...
...It is an "autocracy without an autocrat...
...Reviewed by Robert P. Browder THE RECENT changes in Soviet tactics and leadership and the accompanying relaxation of the barriers to travel in the U.S.S.R...
...Like Douglas and Crankshaw, Sulzberger deplores the West's confusion and blindness in not comprehending and exploiting the latent possibilities ©f present Soviet tactics...
Vol. 21 • March 1957 • No. 3
