Soviet Union: A Question of Isms

A Question of Isms

Tinker: "To work at something clumsily or imperfectly . . . to batter, maul." So says the Oxford English Dictionary. To their horror, the British publishers of the esteemed lexicon found last week that the definition applies to two of their own dictionaries. Editors in the Soviet Union have prepared special editions of the dictionaries that put political isms through a prism. Thus socialism, which is defined in the British editions as "a theory or policy of social organization . . ." in the Soviet version has become a "system which is replacing capitalism." And capitalism? Well, that is "an economic...

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