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Abstract

by Roosevelt and generous American belief greatly impressed the Russian masses, and these impressions may even be expected to survive the repetitive effect of present-day official anti-American propaganda.In going over the rich data assembled by Prof. Barghoom, one is tempted to speculate on the effectiveness of the entire Soviet system of domestic indoctrination. There is litde evidence that the manipulators of public opinion in the Soviet Union are in possession of anything better than a crude theory of motivation, consisting largely of intimidation, displacement of aggression toward the outside world, and precarious rewards for conformism. In educating their subjects they act as if they were unaware of the self-defeating character of the endless reiteration of the same ideological paradigms. Resistance to official propaganda on the part of the Soviet masses should not, however, give the illusion that they could not be mobilized for service to the state.Prof. Barghoorn's book is written in the sober and lucid style of good political history, but without any trace of contemporary "content-analytical" or psycho-analytical frame of reference. A student of the dynamics underlying the emergence of intercultural and international imagery may find this disappointing.