As the title suggests and much of the content confirms, this collection of essays (some previously published) is in essence a book for scholars, but its fresh approach to many aspects of the Soviet system makes it relevant to the international issues of the present and future. On such questions as bureaucracy, decentralization, pluralism, and the nature and role of the Party, Hough goes as far as the evidence and his judgment will take him and states frankly what remains unproven.