The End of the Line: The Failure of Communism in the Soviet Union and China

An account of communism in crisis describes two countries that have lost their binding ideology and become a welter of contradictions

In a trenchant, perceptive report, New York Times foreign correspondent Wren measures the immense gap between rhetoric and reality in the Soviet Union and China, countries he traveled extensively for a decade. He draws parallels between the 100,000-member KGB and China's secret-police apparatus. In both countries, he observed xenophobic distrust of outsiders, an obsession with secrecy, severe shortages of consumer goods, a social welfare system that caters to the elite; brutal police batter confessions out of people and "re-education" is effected through forced labor. Gorbachev and Deng Xiaoping, in Wren's estimate, share a fatal flaw: each wants a basically unaltered political system, with unavoidable reforms imposed from the top instead of emanating from below, as in Eastern Europe. This thoroughgoing critique is crucial reading for those seeking to gauge the future direction of the two Communist giants.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

New York Times senior correspondent Wren has written a fine comparative narrative of his experiences in the Soviet Union and China. Those who have read Hedrick Smith's The Russians ( LJ 9/15/76; 1983. 2d ed.) or David Shipler's Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams ( LJ 9/1/83) will find some of Wren's anecdotes familiar. Nevertheless, the book offers a valuable corrective to works that emphasize distinctions between Soviet and Chinese Communism. To be sure, differences exist, but Wren reveals a common political culture of repression, cynicism, and corruption sustained by the "power of hope and hate." Wren's failure to emphasize the innovative character of Gorbachev's regime is either disappointing or predictable, depending on one's viewpoint, but his fine writing and array of subjects--from Russia's underground to the "new vitality" of Chinese Islam--offer enduring images. Recommended for subject collections.
- Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.