Despite its arid title, this is a significant and interesting book. Hollander, well known for his excellent study of Western champions of the Soviet system (Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China and Cuba, 1927-1978), here examines 22 members of the ruling elite in the USSR and Eastern Europe who lost their faith. How, he wonders, was the determination to rule gradually undermined. He explores this question through interviews with defectors, exiles, high-ranking current political functionaries, and police officials and a careful reading of a collection of memoirs. While not minimizing the effects of economic collapse, Hollander rightly stresses the human component in communism's fall: the elites' loss of confidence in its right to govern played a vital part in the utterly unforeseen denouement. A worthy volume for academic and major public libraries.