The Soviet Union and the Challenge of the Future. Vol. I: The Soviet System: Stasis andChange by Alexander Shtromas; Morton A. KaplanReview by: John C. CampbellForeign Affairs, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Spring, 1989), p. 199Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20043966 .

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RECENT BOOKS 199

suggests that "France has ended its political theater of exceptionalism," and has become more like the other democracies. There are costs to

pacification: a possible "banalization" of politics, a regrettable shortage of

ideas, ennui. Le Pen?with his 14 percent of the vote?is seen in part as a

protest to pacification. The other two essays stress the renewed discussion

concerning the role of "civil society," of elites, of the difficulties of parlia mentary representation?and all of these are put in a historical-political context. Subtle, suggestive essays, distillations of serious political thinkers

who try to put the changed present into a comprehensive context.

WALDHEIM AND AUSTRIA. By Richard Bassett. New York: Viking, 1989. 235 pp. $19.95.

For five years the Vienna correspondent of the London Times, Bassett

puts the Waldheim affair in its proper?and to him, dismal?context: the Austrian milieu with its anti-Semitism and "collective amnesia." More of a

persuasive indictment than an inquiry, but a good introduction to a wretched affair. The book was written before an international commission of historians studied Waldheim's wartime career and issued a report that at the very least contradicted his earlier boast of total ignorance of Nazi atrocities.

THE OTHER ITALY: ITALIAN RESISTANCE IN WORLD WAR II. By Maria de Blasio Wilhelm. New York: Norton, 1988, 197 pp. $18.95.

Glimpses of the Italian Resistance. A popular retelling, supplemented by interviews and focusing on diverse groups and on acts of individual heroism.

A work of inadequate coherence and context.

The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

John C. Campbell

THE SOVIET UNION AND THE CHALLENGE OF THE FUTURE. VOL. I: THE SOVIET SYSTEM: STASIS AND CHANGE. Edited by Alexander Shtromas and Morton A. Kaplan. New York: Paragon House, 1988, 555 pp.

Product of a conference of the Professors World Peace Academy, this

lengthy volume, to be followed by three more, contains a variety of essays, estimates, propositions, debates and disagreements about Russia's future, with excursions into its past. A leading theme is "the coming crisis in the Soviet Union" (the title of a major paper by R.V. Burks) and what may come after "the end of the Soviet system" (the subject of a long piece by

Alexander Shtromas). The book may seem overweighted with personal opinion, speculation and fanciful scenarios, but it has much food for

thought. The speculations of such as Michael Voslensky, Richard Lowen

thal, Leszek Kolakowski, Peter Wiles and Anatoly Fedoseyev cannot be

easily ignored.

POLITICS, SOCIETY AND NATIONALITY INSIDE GORBACHEV'S RUSSIA. Edited by Seweryn Bialer. Boulder (Colo.): Westview Press, 1989, 246

pp. $28.50 (paper, $13.95). An East-West Forum Book. Amid the torrent of publications in the West about the changing Soviet

Union under Gorbachev, this one has a special claim to be noticed in that

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