Soviet Society and Culture: Essays in Honor of Vera S. Dunham by Terry L. Thompson;Richard SheldonReview by: John C. CampbellForeign Affairs, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Fall, 1988), pp. 193-194Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20043734 .

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RECENT BOOKS 193

are cautiously optimistic in exploring the international implications. Profes sor Bialer concludes, for example, that "the time has come at least to

suspend the idea that we must conduct a crusade [against] . . . the Soviet

Union. The continuation of such an attitude will leave us standing alone

among the developed capitalist societies." Gaddis Smith

RETHINKING US-SOVIET RELATIONS. By George Liska. New York:

Basil Blackwell, 1987, 231 pp. $22.50. Both Russia and America, according to George Liska, need to take a

long-term strategic view of their foreign policies and relations with each other. Gorbachev appears to be doing so, but he has no American counter

part. Liska's own rethinking leaves the cold war behind and brings him to

the idea of a global equilibrium based on common interests in stability, downgrading of ideology and a recognition of respective, but not exclusive,

spheres of influence. No simple summary can do justice to this wide-ranging historical and conceptual analysis; it is not a naive prescription for peace and good will. The book lacks, however, any inquiry in depth into Soviet

society and its capacity for change, a matter that bears on what the U.S. can and should do. The language is complex and the argument at times

abstruse, making this no easy reading assignment and possibly limiting the book's impact.

SOVIET SOCIALISM: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ESSAYS. By L. G. Churchward. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul/Methuen, 1988, 216

pp. $45.00. A veteran observer's reflections on chosen topics such as changing Soviet

social structures, Stalinism and de-Stalinization, the intelligentsia, and whether the U.S.S.R. can be called a democracy. Along with his own

opinions he comments on the interpretations of many others; thus, the book constitutes a kind of running critical bibliography of the state of

scholarship on those topics. Written in 1983-84, the essays do not take account of new developments in the Gorbachev era, but these developments tend to buttress many of the author's conclusions.

COGS IN THE WHEEL: THE FORMATION OF SOVIET MAN. By Mikhail Heller. New York: Knopf, 1988, 282 pp. $22.95.

Seventy years of Soviet history seen through the effort to create homo

sovieticus, the new Soviet man. In pursuing this theme, Heller, an emigr? from the U.S.S.R. now living in Paris, draws a devastating picture of the Soviet political system, which he sees as basically unchanged through the

years despite the transitions in the top leadership; Gorbachev's campaign for reform has its parallels in the slogans of all his predecessors, including Stalin. New Soviet man, if he exists, is still unable to adapt to the demands of the scientific-technological revolution of today; hence Gorbachev's in soluble dilemma.

SOVIET SOCIETY AND CULTURE: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF VERA S. DUNHAM. Edited by Terry L. Thompson and Richard Sheldon. Boul der (Colo.): Westview Press, 1988, 290 pp. $26.50.

Authors and editors have succeeded in fashioning a collection of brief,

pithy and not wholly unrelated essays that touch on salient aspects of Soviet

society from Stalin's time to the present. They make a real effort to put

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194 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

their specialized presentations in the context of broad social and cultural trends. Alexander Dallin, Seweryn Bialer, James Millar and Peter Juviler are

among the contributors.

THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGE OF PERESTROIKA. By Abel Agan begyan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988, 248 pp. $18.95.

Writing for the outside world, Gorbachev's principal economic adviser

presents perestroika in much the same way that the general secretary and others have explained it to the Soviet people. His book may be taken as an

authentic statement of how Soviet leaders view the U.S.S.R.'s problems and their solution through changes they describe as fundamental, radical and even

revolutionary, intended to move the U.S.S.R. from a command

economy "towards a democratic, independent, self-managing economy" and the fuller satisfaction of the needs of the Soviet people. The tone

naturally is upbeat, although Aganbegyan certainly is aware of the formi dable obstacles to reform, to which Alec Nove refers in his introduction to

the book.

SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY. Edited by Robbin F. Laird. New York:

Academy of Political Science, 1987, 276 pp. $12.95 (paper). More about Gorbachev and what he has done and might do. These 20

odd essays are admittedly no more than initial assessments, after the first two years, of the prospects for continuity and for change in Soviet foreign policy, and time may prove some of them wrong. All in all, however, they do show how the new leadership's foreign policies are linked to the primary task of reform at home, and what the main lines of policy appear to be in

East-West relations, Third World conflicts and other areas. The authors are a reasonably happy combination of seasoned veterans and promising newcomers.

THE BEAR, THE CUBS AND THE EAGLE: SOVIET BLOC INTER VENTIONISM IN THE THIRD WORLD AND THE U.S. RESPONSE.

By Bertil Dun?r. Brookfield (Vt.): Gower, 1987, 204 pp. $44.50. Published in association with the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.

THE THIRD WORLD AND THE SOVIET UNION. Edited by Zaki La?di. London: Zed Books, 1988, 125 pp. (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Hu

manities Press, distributor, $45.00; paper, $15.00). The Dun?r book poses some key questions concerning Soviet policy and

military interventions in the 1970s and early 1980s, the role of Soviet allies

(especially Cuba), and the countermoves, or absence thereof, by the United

States. The author marshals what evidence he can find?nothing very new

or startling?to see what conclusions the facts support and to test the

conclusions of others. In many instances the facts are insufficient, and he

calls for further study and research. A contrasting viewpoint, found in the

La?di volume, is that of the Third World countries themselves, either

individually or as regional groups. The authors, many of whom are con

nected with the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales in Paris, add new dimensions to the already considerable body of literature on

Soviet-Third World relations produced by Soviet and Western writers. The

essays follow no set plan, however, and the geographic coverage is spotty.

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