Book Reviews : Hitler Moves East 1941-43. By PAUL CARELL. Translated by Ewald Osers from the German "Unternahmen Barbarossa." ( Boston : Little Brown & Co., 1965. Pp. 640. $10.00.) Barbarossa: Russian-German Conflict 1941-45. By ALAN CLARK. (New York: William Morrow Co., 1965. Pp. 567. $10.00.)

• Author: Michael Parrish
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296601900116
• Date: 01 March 1966
• Published date: 01 March 1966
• Subject Matter: Articles

154
Defects and weakness of the communist press are inherent in its system. By insisting on
the subordination of the press to the dictate of the party, on the priority of ideological and
economic propaganda, on the uniform treatment of all aspects of life, on the subjugation of the
journalist’s mind to rigid doctrine, the communist regime deprives itself of the many-sided,
human, inconspicuous and therefore truly effective ways of influencing the masses.
In today’s communist countries, the party constantly feels the political influence
of the intellectuals in general and the press in particular. The fight of the Com-
munist party apparatus in the U.S.S.R., or in Czechoslovakia, mentioned by the
author, against the intellectuals in revolt, is proof thereof. This phenomenon is espe-
cially evident in Poland and in Czechoslovakia, but it is beginning to show itself in
certain Soviet and Hungarian circles.
Thus, the author arrives at the most important political problem concerning
the press and public opinion in Eastern Europe, which is to know whether it is pos-
sible for a politically diversified press and public opinion to exist, to develop and
to work within a monolithic regime with a single governmental party. His answer
is negative.
In our opinion, such a judgment, perfectly well-founded in 1954, seems subject
to eventual modifications, if the conscience and &dquo;rebellious&dquo; activity of the intellec-
tuals in the communist world were to succeed in influencing those in power in a
democratic and liberal direction. The democratic transformations in Eastern Eu-
rope are very slow and uncertain. Nevertheless these changes must occur in the
future, and we consider it fitting to close with a quotation from a recent book by
Maurice Duverger of the Faculté de Droit de Paris: &dquo;The process of liberalization
will be slow and difficult. Those responsible for the apparatus will do their utmost
to delay the process. International crises will bring about...