Vol. XIII (2007), no 20 - The International Newsletter of Communist ...

The International Newletter of Communist Studies Online XIII (2007), no 20 128
repression apparatus or the developement of war industry. Renkama also pondered on the
relation between Kuusinen the ideologue and Kuusinen the tactician. Occasionally the
practical political questions are, however, neglected; Renkama does not, for instance, ask
whether the execution of Imre Nagy had any effect on Kuusinen.
The study does not question the significance of Kuusinen’s past. In some parts Renkama,
following earlier studies, regards Kuusinen as a Bolshevik, in others he emphasises the
difference compared to other members of the CPSU leadership. Though the young colleagues
of Kuusinen in the late 1950s argued for Kuusinen’s “western” character and background in
their memoirs, Renkama does not, however, ponder on whether Kuusinen’s Finnish
background and his earlier “Kautskyism” had some significance in his political thinking in the
1950s. The lack of comparison with Kuusinen as a leading figure in the Communist
International is understandable in so far as there exist no studies concerning this topic.
As a highly outstanding study, Renkama’s book challenges cynical interpretations on the
position and significance of ideology in the Soviet Union. It also corrects, based on memories,
some of the pictures given about Kuusinen and the making of the programme work in the
CPSU. It would be useful for the scholars of the Soviet Union and history of communism to
read this book and realise that Kuusinen was not as grey a bureaucrat as many Soviets, or that
there existed many shades of grey in the apparatus of the communist movement.