The Kremlin vs. The People

by Robert Magidoff. Doubleday, $3.50.

Before he was thrown out on the usual faked espionage charges, Robert Magidoff spent twelve years reporting from inside Russia. He describes the methods by which the Kremlin keeps the upper hand of a citizenry full of contrary impulses, and the increasing resemblance of the Communist government to a vast, tyrannical racket. Mr. Magidoff believes that the Kremlin has, from its own point of view, sound reasons for fearing the West, since numbers of Russian citizens have shown real eagerness to desert Communism at the first opportunity and, lacking the opportunity, carry on a subterranean cold war against their own government. The Kremlin always wins, usually by foul means, but the discontent continues. Air. Magidoff does not foresee revolution in Russia, nor does he suggest that the enmity of many Russians toward their own government can be turned to account in an international quarrel. He describes the situation as he saw it, and his view is a close-up of a slave state.