The Kremlin and the West: A Realistic Approach (English and German Edition) - Hardcover

Wolfgang Leonhard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393023729 ISBN 13: 9780393023725

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1986

Synopsis

This examination of the Soviet system and the men who run it argues that the West must pay attention to Soviet internal strengths and weaknesses and to the domestic strategies of the new political elite that governs the USSR

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Reviews

According to Leonhard, who teaches at Yale, there is growing discontent among Soviet citizens with the regime's neglect of consumer needs, its restrictions on travel, its expenditure of vast sums on the arms industry. The author observes that Marxist-Leninist ideology has lost much of its grip in the U.S.S.R., having been replaced by nationalism and even chauvinism. For Leonhard, who defected to the West after he helped establish and govern communist East Germany, the Soviet Union today is neither the center of world subversion nor a peace-loving superpower. The new Soviet ruling class, he states, practices a kind of industrial feudalism; its obsolete, centralized power structure acts as a brake on the economic and technological growth so badly needed, and therein lies our greatest hope for Soviet reform. An elegantly written, powerful book that should be read by everyone concerned with U.S.Soviet relations, his report urges Reagan to adopt business-like relations with the Soviets and avoid military confrontations.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Leonhard, a refugee from Hitler's Germany and a committed communist as a teenager, trained in elite Soviet party schools before his return to West Germany in 1950. Here he offers general readers understandable overviews of Soviet socio-economic problems, foreign policy, and the power structure. Leonard emphasizes the connection between internal repression and external expansionism used by the ruling elite to maintain control, but argues for the possiblity of internal liberalization and peaceful relations with the Kremlin. His prescription calls for Western support for civil rights, tighter restrictions on East-West trade, and more foreign broadcasts to the Soviet people. A possibility for popular collections though there is little new in either analysis or recommendations. James R. Kuhlman, Univ. of Georgia Lib., Athens
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393023729
• ISBN 13: 9780393023725
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 228