I was thrilled to see that someone had written about this little-known incident from the days when Lenin labored to consolidate his power in what would become the Soviet Union. In the end, what I got was a good, scholarly presentation that left me wanting more. The author does a good job, in the early going, of introducing us to some of the major players, but that's all we're left with -- introductions. I came away feeling I didn't know any of these people as well as I would have liked. Perhaps the source material isn't yet available to make that possible; possibily the fact that the book touches on so many individuals precluded it, but I felt disappointed in the end. I also felt the final chapter, where the author attempts to explain where the philosophies of these exiled parted ways from Lenin was a waste of time. I'm hopeful another author will take up the subject, but this is definite a good start.

A book that helps one better understand the havoc created among the Russian intelligentsia by the Bolsheviks after the overthrow of the czar.

Ms. Chamberlain traces the expulsion by Lenin of some of the best thinkers in Russia and uses their often sorry fates (many go to Berlin or Prague, in short time to become victims of Hitler) to help explain the various strands of philosophical thinking that were such a threat to the world view of the new autocrat, the Communist Party.

It is clear to the author that Stalin was a product of Lenin's thinking, not an aberration.

Readers, who make the effort, will learn much that will help them understand the deep divisions within present day Russia. Conflicting views on the essence (spiritual and political) of Russia, that were present in the early 1920s and long before, have reemerged since the thankful crash in the 1980s of Lenin's deadly party.