SOURCE: Evans, Jr., Alfred. “Gorbachev's Unfinished Revolution.” Problems of Communication 40, nos. 1-2 (January-April 1991): 133-43.

In the following excerpt, Evans praises certain portions of Revolution from Above, but faults others, asserting that the book ignores many complexities of the Soviet political arena.

[Revolution from Above,] by Tariq Ali is similar to the on-the-scene reporting of well-informed political journalists in Western and Asian democracies. A series of topical essays on Soviet politics in 1987 and 1988, the book is based largely on extensive interviews with well-placed Soviet sources. Ali expresses the enthusiasm of one who is caught up in the excitement of increasing political openness and intellectual honesty in the USSR under Gorbachev, and sees in perestroyka and glasnost the prospect for the revitalization of the socialist idea.

Ali describes political processes in the USSR as characterized by increasingly open debates among those defending contending positions, and by ever more open appeals...