Russia's Children Grow Up

Reviews the book, The New Soviet Man: His Upbringing and Character Development by Herschel and Edith Alt (see record 1965-06168-000). This is a sequel to the authors first book, Russia's Children, and though it can stand on its own merit, perusal of the forerunner enhances appreciation and will yield only mild repetitiousness. Some differences, however, are rather striking. Reading Russia's Children is like going with the the authors on a trip to the USSR, whereas this book is more like a library excursion or a lecture series. Focus has changed from simply reporting phenomena to careful speculation about cause and effect, and even the style changes from chatty narrative to rather ponderous prose. The authors leave many of their own questions unsatisfactorily answered (e.g. changes after de-Stalinization) but they raise some important issues too, and afford the opportunity to learn a great deal about Soviet character development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)