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Article: Lost inspiration and the fall of the Soviet Union.(Political Will & Personal Belief: The Decline and Fall of Soviet Communism)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Modern Age
- Article date:
- June 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Intercollegiate Studies Institute Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Political Will & Personal Belief: The Decline and Fall of Soviet Communism, by Paul Hollander, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. xi + 356 pp.
LEGEND HAS IT that in the early 1920s one of Vladimir Lenin's fellow Bolsheviks asked him to justify the growing number of atrocities they were committing in the name of a socialist future. "If you want to make an omelet," Lenin insisted, "you have to be willing to break a few eggs." To which the Bolshevik replied, "Comrade, I see the broken eggs everywhere. But where, oh where, is the omelet?"
The twentieth century was, in many ways, a history of broken eggs in the name of progress; a fact Paul ...