Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History

Like a cultural archeologist subversively digging beneath his country's rotting foundation, Paris-based Russian emigre writer Sinyavsky tears away the facade of the Communist experiment. In his eyes, the ``Soviet way of life'' is one of ``permanent uncertainty,'' marked by widespread worker theft from factories and farms, by the scarcity of consumer goods, despised communal apartments, appalling negligence, corruption. A survivor of labor camps who also writes under the name of Abram Tertz ( A Voice from the Chorus ), Sinyavsky offers a devastating, mordantly witty appraisal of the new Soviet ``yes-man'' and of the masses' ``slave psychology'' forged by Stalin. Fearful of a resurgent militant ultranationalism, he sees the typical Russian as chauvinistic, ignorant of other countries and cultures, with a smug sense of superiority. Apt literary analyses enliven Sinyavsky's arguments. (Oct.)