The Soviet Mind

"With a revised foreword by Brookings President Strobe Talbott and a new introduction by Berlinâs editor, Henry Hardy.

George Kennan, the architect of US policy toward the Soviet Union, called Isaiah Berlin âthe patron saint among the commentators of the Russian scene.â In The Soviet Mind, Berlin proves himself fully worthy of that accolade. Although the essays in this book were originally written to explore the tensions between Soviet communism and Russian culture, the thinking about the Russian mind that emerges is as relevant today under Putinâs post-communist Russia as it was when this book first appeared more than a decade ago.

This Brookings Classic brings together Berlinâs writings about the Soviet Union. Among the highlights are accounts of Berlinâs meetings with the Russian writers in the aftermath of the war; a celebrated memorandum he wrote for the British Foreign Office in 1945 about the state of the arts under Stalin; Berlinâs account of Stalinâs manipulative âartificial dialecticâ; portraits of Pasternak and poet Osip Mandel''shtam; Berlinâs survey of Russian culture based on a visit in 1956; and a postscript reflecting on the fall of the Berlin Wall and other events in 1989.

Henry Hardy prepared the essays for publication; his introductory discussions describe their history. In his foreword, revised for this new edition, Brookingsâs Strobe Talbott, a long-time expert on Russia and the Soviet Union, relates the essays to Berlinâs other work.

The essays and other pieces in The Soviet Mindâ"which includes a new essay, âMarxist versus Non-Marxist Ideas in Soviet Policyâ, and a summary of a talk on communismâ"represent Berlin at his most brilliant, and are invaluable for policy-makers, students and anyone interested in Russian politics and thoughtâ"past, present and future."