ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reveals the real truth, and for that reason, neither exceptional circumstances nor the miscellaneous information which is found under striking headlines in Russian newspapers are taken as illustrations of the general situation, even though these are not without their occasional significance. The reader must not forget that the Russian Press of today depends, without exception, on the Secretariat of the Communist Party, which is the very incarnation of political power. These newspapers, very naturally, tend to suppress events which do not show the Soviet Government in a favourable light in order to deprive the foreign and hostile Press of all grounds for criticism. The present leaders of the Soviet Union who have monopolized the dictatorship have recently introduced an innovation into the Communist system of government by inventing a special privilege, known as self-criticism.
