Why Did They Do It? (If They Did It).

The article attempts to understand political developments in Russia, focusing on Communist and anti-Communist sentiment, which was discussed in the book, Double Lives--Spies and Writers in the Secret Soviet War of Ideas Against the West, by Stephen Koch. It reveals the obsession of Russians with anti-Communism. It is an exploration of Communist manipulation of the Western left-inclined which attempts to find an excuse to Joseph Stalin's and his successors' barbarity. Reviewer Maurice Isserman is very skeptical in her review of the book. He does not like the idea that Westerners might have been susceptible to the beguiling of Communist agents working for Stalin.