Once Bitten, Twice Bitten

In its unflagging game of one-up-manship against the free world, the Soviet Union has experienced uneven sucess. For years, the Kremlin’s efforts to co-opt crucial inventions as symbols of Russian genius were dismissed by Western authorities as ridiculous bravado. Recent assertions of Soviet prowess have been viewed less skeptically. For some reason, the same Westerners who shrugged off assertions that Russians invented the radio, the steam engine and the electric light have accepted Moscow’s claims to technical and economic performance, in many cases less plausible than the others, with goggle-eyed credulity. Instead of braggarts who misrepresent and inflate their performance, the Soviets have become, in Western eyes, modest virtuosi who claim no more than they are capable of, and sometimes less.

East Minus W est=Zero, by Werner Keller (Constantine Fitzgibbon, trans.). Putnam, $6.95

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M. Stanton Evans

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In its unflagging game of one-up-manship against the free world, the Soviet Union has experienced uneven sucess. For years, the Kremlin’s efforts to co-opt crucial inventions as symbols of Russian genius were dismissed by Western authorities as ridiculous bravado. Recent assertions of Soviet prowess have been viewed less skeptically. For some reason, the same Westerners who shrugged off assertions that Russians invented the radio, the steam engine and the electric light have accepted Moscow’s claims to technical and economic performance, in many cases less plausible than the others, with goggle-eyed credulity. Instead of braggarts who misrepresent and inflate their performance, the Soviets have become, in Western eyes, modest virtuosi who claim no more than they are capable of, and sometimes less.

East Minus W est=Zero, by Werner Keller (Constantine Fitzgibbon, trans.). Putnam, $6.95