Describing the place of Marxist-Leninist "truth" in communist systems and how it is purveyed to consumers at home and abroad makes a well-known story without major surprises, but Paul Lendvai tells it with the right combination of broad background and telling illustrations from recent years, including a review of compliance with the information clauses of the Helsinki Final Act. As a working journalist based in Austria, with years of experience in Eastern Europe, he writes with authority on a subject he knows intimately.