THE RIGHT BOOKS

Raymond Chandler remarked somewhere that the detective-story writer’s first defense against tedium is to have a man break through the door with a blazing gun in his hand. Smashed doors and blazing guns have accounted for most of Russian experience since 1917, and yet the tedium of Soviet history remains: it is the dismal, impersonal dreariness of bogus political “science” as embodied in a relentless procession of alphabet agencies suggesting serried ranks of blank tombstones. Those readers who are either indifferent to this tedium, or find themselves able to break through it with a blazing gun, will find Chekisty: A History of the KGB (Lexington Books, D. C. Heath and Company, 125 Spring Street, Lexington, Mass. 02173; $17.95), by John J. Dziak with a foreword by Robert Conquest, a rewarding book.

Dziak’s theme is the rise, consolidation, and perfecting of what he calls “the counterintelligence state,” in which the security system functions as the “principal guardian” of the monopolistic revolutionary Party. In the counterintelligence state, the security system is the only system that works well, or indeed at all, and it is partly for that reason that it has become the state’s chief export. “The counterintelligence state,” Dziak writes, “can generate political power and the security to protect it. It cannot generate economic welfare for the common good; but, then, that is not what Communist systems are about.”

CW

About the Author

Chilton Williamson Jr.

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Raymond Chandler remarked somewhere that the detective-story writer’s first defense against tedium is to have a man break through the door with a blazing gun in his hand. Smashed doors and blazing guns have accounted for most of Russian experience since 1917, and yet the tedium of Soviet history remains: it is the dismal, impersonal dreariness of bogus political “science” as embodied in a relentless procession of alphabet agencies suggesting serried ranks of blank tombstones. Those readers who are either indifferent to this tedium, or find themselves able to break through it with a blazing gun, will find Chekisty: A History of the KGB (Lexington Books, D. C. Heath and Company, 125 Spring Street, Lexington, Mass. 02173; $17.95), by John J. Dziak with a foreword by Robert Conquest, a rewarding book.

Dziak’s theme is the rise, consolidation, and perfecting of what he calls “the counterintelligence state,” in which the security system functions as the “principal guardian” of the monopolistic revolutionary Party. In the counterintelligence state, the security system is the only system that works well, or indeed at all, and it is partly for that reason that it has become the state’s chief export. “The counterintelligence state,” Dziak writes, “can generate political power and the security to protect it. It cannot generate economic welfare for the common good; but, then, that is not what Communist systems are about.”