The New Class [antikvár]

Preface All this could be told in a different way: as the history of a contemporary revolution, as the expression of a set of opinions, or finally, as the confession of a revolutionary. A little of each of these may be found in this document. But, even if this is an inadequate synthesis of history, opinions and memoirs, it reflects my effort to give as complete and as brief a picture as possible of contemporary Communism, Some special or technical aspects may be lost, but the larger picture, I trust, will be that much simpler and more complete. I have tried to detach myself from my personal problems by not submitting to them. My circumstances are, at best, uncertain and I am therefore compelled to express my personal observations and experiences hastily; a more detailed examination of my personal situation might some day supplement and perhaps even change some of my conclusions. I cannot describe all the dimensions of the conflict in the painful course of our contemporary world. Nor do I pretend to know any world outside the Communist world, in which I had either the fortune or misfortune to live. When I speak of a world outside my own, I do so only to put my own world in perspective, to make its reality clearer.