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The Russians are coming. The politics of anti-Sovietism
Book Reviews
425
presuming to elevate himself above nature, claims his weaponry is entirely desacralised. But the recorded responses of Oppenheimer, Fermi, Feynman and the rest, give the game away. What the physicists themselves confessed to having witnessed at Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1945 was God incarnate. All had profound religious experiences that July dawn. Chernus offers no easy way out of the nuclear labyrinth. Were our attachment to the Bomb and its factories merely economically or politically-based, then perhaps lifeenhancing functional alternatives to them could be legislated. But the problem of the Bomb is not merely a problem of political-economics or morality. It is a symbolic problem. Human beings crave religious nourishment and will find it even in the most grotesque ways. What Chernus does offer is the promise that once we become conscious of our ‘strangelove’ for the ‘technological death-God’, then our enthrallment will be demystified. As this occurs its possession of us should diminish. The dissolution of the old world, a world in which the Bomb tyrannises its makers, makes possible the birth of the new. James A. Aho Idaho State University
The Russians are Coming. The Politics of Anti-Sovietism, V.L. Allen (Keighley, Yorkshire: The Moore Press, 1987), xxiii + 369 pp., g9.95 paper.
West
In 1982 V.L. Allen travelled to the Soviet Union for more than three months in order to collect research data on the country’s trade unions. Following on his return he was actively engaged in the work of the peace movement and frequently found there what he thought were false conceptions about the reality and intentions of the Soviet Union. He came to realise how the stereotype of the Soviet Union as the enemy of Western countries had become the justification for the massive build-up of nuclear arms in the West. From this vantage point Allen adopts the view of anti-Sovietism as ‘the most important issue in international relations today’. If people in the West cease to see the Soviet Union as a brutal and tyrannical system, Allen says, then the whole ideological edifice of Western military policy would begin to collapse. Allen is quite polemical in this book; he makes no secret of his sympathies for the Soviet Union, even though he does not accept all of its methods and mistakes. Allen has researched his subject very thoroughly, and he uses both Western and Soviet sources. He sees anti-Sovietism as an integral part of the domestic and foreign policies of capitalist countries; it is a central weapon in their struggle against the radical opposition (i.e. trade unionists and communists) as well as in safeguarding the interests of weapons monopolies. Allen feels that the Soviet Union can indeed represent a threat to capitalism, but only in one way: by encouraging workers of Western countries to see the Soviet Union as a positive model for social change. His view on anti-Sovietism as a planned, concerted and coordinated system of action is quite problematic, however, in that he makes no distinction between conscious, tendential distortion and genuine criticism of real problems (although even the latter is often distorted by false prejudice). From these premises Allen also examines leftist criticism of the Soviet Union as part of the stereotyped enemy image prevailing in the capitalist world. Allen describes in considerable detail the development of the British and American enemy image of the Soviet Union, but this description does not really contribute to our
426
Book Reviews
theoretical understanding of that image. He shows that attitudes in the British labour movement towards the Soviet Union have always been much more positive than in the mass media or in official British policy. This, he says, is clear indication that the massive anti-Soviet campaign carried on by the mass media has not been as all-powerful as its architects perhaps envisaged it. Allen’s discussion of the peace movement is largely based on the situation and ways of thinking of the early 198Os, although towards the end of the book he does refer to Gorbachev. However, the new Soviet foreign policy line, the emphasis of universal human interests instead of the struggle between socialism and capitalism, is not yet reflected in Allen’s text. Allen attempts to prove that the Western stereotype image of the Soviet Union is based on false prejudice by comparing Western and Soviet conceptions of democracy and human rights. His criticism against tendential Sovietology is quite perceptive, but on the other hand he forgets this element ofcriticism when he describes the mechanisms of Soviet democracy. It is unfortunate that Allen travelled to the Soviet Union a few years too early; he is now defending a model of ‘democracy’ that the Soviet Union is trying to get rid of. The same applies to his analysis of Stalin’s rule of terror. He carefully examines Western reports of the victims of Stalin and tries to prove that there is a lot of exaggeration all over. Today many of the scholars that Allen attacks in his book have been rehabilitated in the Soviet public debate. Of course we have to bear in mind that these new appraisals are often of a speculative nature rather than based on scientific evidence, and there is also a tendency in the country today to blame Stalin for everything. As far as human rights are concerned Allen seems extremely old-fashioned when his statements are compared with the debate that is now going on inside the Soviet Union. By contrast, his treatment of the Jewish issue is very good and gives a clear picture of the position of Jews in the Soviet Union, as well as of the reasons for their emigration. The main problem with Allen’s book is that his descriptions of Soviet reality are based on an outdated source material. The result would be much more interesting if Allen started to write his book now, looking at the reality uncovered by glasnost with the same thoroughness. As it is, the credibility of his otherwise perceptive and important analysis of the Western image of the Soviet Union is seriously undermined by his uncritical description of Soviet reality. The most interesting and rewarding theme of the book is undoubtedly Allen’s historical analysis of anti-Sovietism, particularly in Britain during the present century. Pentti Raittila University of Tampere, Finland
L’islamisme au Maghreb: La Voix du Sud (Tunisie, Algerie, Libye, Maroc), Francois (Paris: Karthala, 1988), 307 pp., 130FF. L’islamisme radical, Bruno Etienne
(Paris: Hachette,
Burgat
1987) 366 pp., 130FF.
Les banlieues de I’Islam. Naissance d’une religion en France, Gilles Kepel (Paris: Seuil, 1987), 429 pp., 150FF. These three interesting titles by Burgat, Etienne and Kepel look at contemporary political Islam, or so-called Islamism, in different contexts. Etienne focuses on the essence
425
presuming to elevate himself above nature, claims his weaponry is entirely desacralised. But the recorded responses of Oppenheimer, Fermi, Feynman and the rest, give the game away. What the physicists themselves confessed to having witnessed at Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1945 was God incarnate. All had profound religious experiences that July dawn. Chernus offers no easy way out of the nuclear labyrinth. Were our attachment to the Bomb and its factories merely economically or politically-based, then perhaps lifeenhancing functional alternatives to them could be legislated. But the problem of the Bomb is not merely a problem of political-economics or morality. It is a symbolic problem. Human beings crave religious nourishment and will find it even in the most grotesque ways. What Chernus does offer is the promise that once we become conscious of our ‘strangelove’ for the ‘technological death-God’, then our enthrallment will be demystified. As this occurs its possession of us should diminish. The dissolution of the old world, a world in which the Bomb tyrannises its makers, makes possible the birth of the new. James A. Aho Idaho State University
The Russians are Coming. The Politics of Anti-Sovietism, V.L. Allen (Keighley, Yorkshire: The Moore Press, 1987), xxiii + 369 pp., g9.95 paper.
West
In 1982 V.L. Allen travelled to the Soviet Union for more than three months in order to collect research data on the country’s trade unions. Following on his return he was actively engaged in the work of the peace movement and frequently found there what he thought were false conceptions about the reality and intentions of the Soviet Union. He came to realise how the stereotype of the Soviet Union as the enemy of Western countries had become the justification for the massive build-up of nuclear arms in the West. From this vantage point Allen adopts the view of anti-Sovietism as ‘the most important issue in international relations today’. If people in the West cease to see the Soviet Union as a brutal and tyrannical system, Allen says, then the whole ideological edifice of Western military policy would begin to collapse. Allen is quite polemical in this book; he makes no secret of his sympathies for the Soviet Union, even though he does not accept all of its methods and mistakes. Allen has researched his subject very thoroughly, and he uses both Western and Soviet sources. He sees anti-Sovietism as an integral part of the domestic and foreign policies of capitalist countries; it is a central weapon in their struggle against the radical opposition (i.e. trade unionists and communists) as well as in safeguarding the interests of weapons monopolies. Allen feels that the Soviet Union can indeed represent a threat to capitalism, but only in one way: by encouraging workers of Western countries to see the Soviet Union as a positive model for social change. His view on anti-Sovietism as a planned, concerted and coordinated system of action is quite problematic, however, in that he makes no distinction between conscious, tendential distortion and genuine criticism of real problems (although even the latter is often distorted by false prejudice). From these premises Allen also examines leftist criticism of the Soviet Union as part of the stereotyped enemy image prevailing in the capitalist world. Allen describes in considerable detail the development of the British and American enemy image of the Soviet Union, but this description does not really contribute to our
426
Book Reviews
theoretical understanding of that image. He shows that attitudes in the British labour movement towards the Soviet Union have always been much more positive than in the mass media or in official British policy. This, he says, is clear indication that the massive anti-Soviet campaign carried on by the mass media has not been as all-powerful as its architects perhaps envisaged it. Allen’s discussion of the peace movement is largely based on the situation and ways of thinking of the early 198Os, although towards the end of the book he does refer to Gorbachev. However, the new Soviet foreign policy line, the emphasis of universal human interests instead of the struggle between socialism and capitalism, is not yet reflected in Allen’s text. Allen attempts to prove that the Western stereotype image of the Soviet Union is based on false prejudice by comparing Western and Soviet conceptions of democracy and human rights. His criticism against tendential Sovietology is quite perceptive, but on the other hand he forgets this element ofcriticism when he describes the mechanisms of Soviet democracy. It is unfortunate that Allen travelled to the Soviet Union a few years too early; he is now defending a model of ‘democracy’ that the Soviet Union is trying to get rid of. The same applies to his analysis of Stalin’s rule of terror. He carefully examines Western reports of the victims of Stalin and tries to prove that there is a lot of exaggeration all over. Today many of the scholars that Allen attacks in his book have been rehabilitated in the Soviet public debate. Of course we have to bear in mind that these new appraisals are often of a speculative nature rather than based on scientific evidence, and there is also a tendency in the country today to blame Stalin for everything. As far as human rights are concerned Allen seems extremely old-fashioned when his statements are compared with the debate that is now going on inside the Soviet Union. By contrast, his treatment of the Jewish issue is very good and gives a clear picture of the position of Jews in the Soviet Union, as well as of the reasons for their emigration. The main problem with Allen’s book is that his descriptions of Soviet reality are based on an outdated source material. The result would be much more interesting if Allen started to write his book now, looking at the reality uncovered by glasnost with the same thoroughness. As it is, the credibility of his otherwise perceptive and important analysis of the Western image of the Soviet Union is seriously undermined by his uncritical description of Soviet reality. The most interesting and rewarding theme of the book is undoubtedly Allen’s historical analysis of anti-Sovietism, particularly in Britain during the present century. Pentti Raittila University of Tampere, Finland
L’islamisme au Maghreb: La Voix du Sud (Tunisie, Algerie, Libye, Maroc), Francois (Paris: Karthala, 1988), 307 pp., 130FF. L’islamisme radical, Bruno Etienne
(Paris: Hachette,
Burgat
1987) 366 pp., 130FF.
Les banlieues de I’Islam. Naissance d’une religion en France, Gilles Kepel (Paris: Seuil, 1987), 429 pp., 150FF. These three interesting titles by Burgat, Etienne and Kepel look at contemporary political Islam, or so-called Islamism, in different contexts. Etienne focuses on the essence