During the holidays I stayed for a while in a National Trust cottage next to Chastleton House, a Jacobean building in the Cotswolds. It had some old books on shelves. I think some of them had been in the library of Chastleton house when it was still occupied by the owners. Among them was I Chose Freedom by Victor Kravchenko. First published in 1946 it is the autobiography of a man who was the son of a communist revolutionary, who himself became an enthusiast for the revolution but who eventually became disillusioned and defected to the west.

I recommend the book. It communicates very well how genuine is the idealism of those who have chosen communism and/or socialism. The description of how the Soviet revolution went horribly wrong is all the more powerful for coming from one of its believers and insiders. We should try to learn from it a deeper understanding of why communism and socialism don't work.

I am keen that people should read it because the failures of the communist regimes - both economically and politically - are beginning to fade from memory. The ideas of communisma and socialism are instantly appealing, especially to young people who did not live through the failures that took place in Russia, Eastern Europe, China a elsewhere through the twentieth century. I fear that if younger people do not read books such as this, they will again fall for the same illusions.

The book is also a jolly good read. I only reached page 50 in Chastleton but I am keen for more. I have already ordered a copy for myself from Abebooks.com. I hope others will do the same. It is not expensive. The cheapest copies are less than a couple of pounds plus postage. It must have been a best-seller in the late 1940s.

Incidentally, another good book by a communist insider is The Truth That Killed by Georgi Markov - the Bulgarian who was assasinated in London by the Bulgarian secret service.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Politics

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