The Demise of the Soviet Union by G. R. UrbanReview by: Robert LegvoldForeign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (Summer, 1993), pp. 207-208Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20045675 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 00:48

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ForeignAffairs.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.105 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:48:39 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Recent Books

hnev era, published in the Gorbachev

era? Larina not only recounts her fate in

the camps and that ofthe wives, mothers, sisters and daughters ofthe prominent

Bolsh-eviks consumed in the purges, but

provides vivid and fascinating accounts of

her fam-ous husband and adoptive father,

Yury Larin, one of Lenin's inner circle. As

Step-hen Cohen notes in his fine intro

duction, apart from the books of Trotsky and Stalin's daughter, this is "the only uncensored memoir ever to appear from

inside the highest levels ofthat historic and doomed world." It is an enthralling book.

Serbs and Croats: The Struggle in Yugoslavia. by alex n. DRAGNICH. New York:

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992, 202

pp. $22.95 (paper, $10.95). As a further sad echo ofthe nightmare in

the former Yugoslavia, outside experts on

the region have increasingly been drawn

into the maelstrom, some as willing war

riors, some as the hapless targets ofthe

warring sides. The author's purpose is to

offer the appalled general observer a brief

history of Yugoslavia in the twentieth cen

tury and to help make sense ofthe awful

events ofthe moment. The book, however, serves only the first purpose. It is a basic

history, and useful for that reason, but one

in which there are few Croat heroes and

few Serbian villains.

No Breathing Room: The Aftermath of Chernobyl, by grigori medvedev.

New York: Basic Books, 1993, 213 pp. $20.00.

Medvedev is a nuclear engineer and a for

mer senior figure in the Soviet nuclear

power establishment. He helped design the Chernobyl plant, and he was among those sent in to assess the damage when it

blew up. He wrote a chilling account based

on what he found, published as The Truth

about Chernobyl. This book is quite differ

ent. More than anything it is a case study of censorship in the former Soviet Union.

Long before the explosion at Chernobyl, an alarmed Medvedev had written four

short stories, warning a Russian audience

in fictionalized form ofthe dangers await

ing them. Here he recounts in exquisite detail the blockheaded resistance of cen

sors to their publication from 1979 until

well after Chernobyl. Sadly, in the end,

they were protecting nothing but misguid ed principle and the ineptitude of min

istries and other parts ofthe bureaucracy

responsible.

The Demise ofthe Soviet Union, by g. r.

urban. Washington (DC): American

University Press, 1993,238 pp. $21.95.

Rather like Bill Moyers' quality television

interviews, Urban over the years has pub lished his active dialogues with intellectu

als who have been at the center ofthe

East-West struggle. This

collection?given false billing as about the

demise ofthe Soviet Union?features

Sydney Hook speaking autobiographically from the perspective of someone who once

accepted socialism; Hugh Trevor-Roper

reflecting on Wilhelmian Germany, the

Soviet Union and other empires; Elie

Kedourie on nationalism; Otto von

Hapsburg on the difference between the

Hapsburgs and the Bolsheviks; and Karl

Popper jousting against both historical

optimism and the predictability of history.

To order any book reviewed or advertised in Foreign Affairs, call 1-800-842-4912.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS Summer 1993 [2?7]

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.105 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:48:39 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Recent Books

Only Adam Ulam and Milovan Djilas are interviewed on the subject. The common

thread is that Urban talked to them all dur

ing a remarkable period of time, from

1987-91.

Middle East WILLIAM B. QUANDT

Islam and Democracy: Fear ofthe Modern

World. BY FATIMA MERNISSI. New

York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1992,195 PP- $24.95.

Whoever says that modern Arab intellec

tuals have not engaged in intelligent analy sis and criticism of their society, its values

and its politics has not read the books of

Fatima Mernissi. A Moroccan sociologist, she writes from a feminist perspective, this

time about Islamic concepts of freedom, order and responsibility, and their compati

bility with democracy. She argues that

establishment Islam, that conveyed by the

state, has stressed the importance of order

and obedience. In this version of Islam, limits on individual freedom must be

respected for the sake of communal inter

ests, the past must be veiled and women

must be secluded. Other strands of Islam

have encouraged the exercise of reason,

respected public opinion and valued com

passion, but these sentiments have been

discouraged by ruling elites anxious to pro tect their own

privileges. The author is at

her best when she identifies the origins of a

concept in the early days of Islam and

shows how it has survived into the present, with all the connotations that can make

words like "freedom" seem dangerous. She

conveys the social setting in which extrem

ist Islamic movements wave the banner of

revolt against oppression while ignoring the corresponding need for tolerance.

There are moments of real brilliance and

insight in this extended essay. At times the

attempt to relate the current crisis to the

recent Persian Gulf conflict seems strained, but her fundamental message is powerful and worth hearing.

Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising, and the Arab World, by kanan makiya.

New York: W. W. Norton and Co.,

1993, 256 pp. $19.95. The author o? Republic of Fear, now writing under his real name, has raised issues that

are all too often ignored by Arab writers.

Why is it, he asks, that the violence and

oppression so common in Arab politics is

seemingly tolerated by Arab intellectuals or

blamed on outsiders? Why does the human

tragedy that has befallen the Kurds get so

little attention compared to the suffering of

the Palestinians? The author draws heavily on the case of modern Iraq, and is at his

most convincing when he describes

Saddam Hussein's near-genocidal Anfal

campaign against the Kurds in 1988. The

first part ofthe book is largely a catalogue of horrors, the second part condemns the

"politics of silence" on the part ofthe

knowledgeable Arab intelligentsia that

chooses not to speak. On occasion, the

author seems to be settling old scores with

his critics, but his general point is a serious

one all the same. On balance, the book is

less analytical and more passionate than his

previous work, and succeeds better in rais

ing issues than in explaining them. Bound

to stir controversy among Middle East spe

cialists, this book deserves to be read?and

answered.

[208] FOREIGN AFFAIRS Volume72No.3

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.105 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:48:39 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions