ABSTRACT
One of the strange truths about the Soviet Union is that, despite its strong ideological commitment to the unity of theory and practice, its system has developed in a pure theoretical void. It is only with the maturation of postwar Soviet life, the evolution of the society along all two familiar lines-external aggressivity and internal satisfaction of consumer wants-that the actual parameters of Soviet society are revealed. It becomes clear that the binding ingredients in Soviet society are national rather than class in character. The slowdown in the rate of Soviet industrial production is common to advanced societies the world over and not necessarily indicative of an irreconcilable contradiction. Yanov and Todd agree that anti-Semitism is the crucial linchpin of the ideology of Soviet nationalism. The function of Soviet anti-Semitism, while not dissimilar to German nationalism in its claims, does not necessarily have the same dire genocidal consequences.
