The New Soviet Empire
Potpourri
by .Yale University Press, $3.75.
The author, whose previous books have showed him to be a shrewd prophet of Russian affairs, now turns in an up-todate survey of conditions within the Soviet Empire. Mr. Dallin’s findings, if often controversial, are always well documented and, in the main, highly encouraging. He believes that the old forms of imperialism were much more efficient than the Stalinist variety — Stalin is seriously handicapped in his empire-building by having to maintain certain ideological fictions. The Western democracies, accordingly, should do everything in their power to drive home Russian defeats. Mr. Dallin disagrees with the anthropologists and historians who have argued that the Russians have a leaning towards absolutism; and he stresses that it should be our policy to regard the Russian people as potential allies. Stalinism can and must, he concludes, be made to crumble from within.