Shorter Notices
Russia after Stalin. By Isaac Deutscher. (Hamish Hamilton. 10s. 6d.) MR. DEUTSCHER'S new little book written with commendable speed has been overtaken, even so, by events. But these will not detract from the interest which his readers are likely to find in the analysis of those features in the Russian scene which form the background of the struggle for power which has now burst so dramatically to the surface. The fundamentals of the social and economic system Mr. Deutscher regards as immutable —even "collectivisation."• But politically he believes Russia is ripe for change, though a temporary relapse into Stalinist rigidity is not inconceivable, and attempts from the outside to exploit these troubles might lead to a Soviet Bonapartism of an aggressive kind. What "democratisation" could mean within the confines of a fully socialist' economy is a question which the author's fundamental preconceptions do not allow him to ask. The crisis may be more simply a crisis of authority than he allows; but the book will at least set argument off on the right lines, and is the fruit of those long, and serious studies of Soviet affairs which distinguish Mr. Deutscher from his fellow
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