A snapshot (perforce) of what the USSR was like in the early 1930s, from the point of view of one of the UK's most eminent scientists. There were quite a few of these in that era; among other people, David Low, H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw have also left their accounts. While the book is friendly, though not uncritical, certain knowledge we have, that Huxley didn't, gives his descriptions either a more sinister air, or a rather ironically tragic air. For example, at one point, Huxley has a long and involved conversation with both Nikolai Bukharin and Karl Radek -- both of whom would be jailed and executed within seven years of the publication of the book. There is also a lengthy discussion of agricultural research and cross-breeding (i.e., genetics), much of which would be washed away fifteen years later by Trofim Lysenko's theories. Indeed, Vavilov the geneticist is quoted a number of times, and he would end up dying in prison in 1943. Given Huxley's own profession, and the theme of the book, Vavilov's fate is particularly chilling. There is also a rather breezy attitude toward religion in the book, with Huxley following the line that religion is allowed; the off-hand reference to the gold being stripped from that Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow is somehow quite chilling (the church was demolished in December of 1931, shortly before the book was published). Huxley does pose a question as to whether or not planning was the wave of the future -- the answer, based on experience since his time, would appear to be: "certainly not in the way the Soviets practiced it." Recommended -- if only because it shows you how even brilliant minds can be gulled. ( )