From within the Soviet Union, a critique of the Soviet political system by the celebrated dissident scholar. Roy Medvedev demonstrates, in engrossing and sharp detail, how the vast gulf between Marxist-Leninist principles and official Soviet attitudes and procedures turned vital theory into hollow dogma. Focusing on the rigidities of official ideology, he makes brilliantly clear the ways in which an excessively centralized and cumbersome bureaucratic structure was disastrous for the economic, intellectual, and moral development of Soviet society―keeping it dangerously insular in an era of increasing internationalism. "One of the most important political books to make its way out of the Soviet Union." ― Stephen F. Cohen, New York Times Book Review "It is of considerable moment that a leading Soviet dissident argues against the dictatorship in his country from within Marxist and socialist premises and methodology. Moreover, he does the job brilliantly." ― Michael Harrington, Political Science Quarterly