Developing the views contained in his biography of Stalin, Mr. Deutscher attempts to project the likely course of events under the dictator's successors. Essentially his thesis is that Stalinism had a rational function in forcibly overcoming Russia's economic and social backwardness, that with the realization of this function has disappeared the raison d'être of the régime, and that there is a reasonable chance for eventual democratic evolution. This sanguine expectation is convincing only if the author's view of Stalinism as pragmatic and self-limiting can be accepted.
