29 MARCH 1940, Page 26

Red Pilot : Memoirs of a Soviet Airman. By Vladimir

Unishevsky. (Hurst and Blacken. 7s. 6d.)

WHEN Kirov was assassinated Lieutenant Unishevsky, who had just completed his training as an aviator in the Red Army, was unwise enough to remark to a couple of friends : " How pleased Kaganovitch would have been if Stalin had been removed instead of Kirov! " This book describes the consequences of this indiscreet comment, which terminated in his leaving the Soviet in a barely airworthy machine, and landing in Estonia, accompanied by another officer, who was also tired of the activities of the Ogpu.