1 Though the detailed story of Sovietization of Eastern Europe could not form part of a book already so packed with narrative and comment, it must be said that Bullock shows an excellent grasp of its essentials and even details. Two errors can perhaps usefully be noted. One is omission, when referring to Finland’s crisis in 1948, of the successful defeat by the Finnish socialists of the attempt by Communists to pack the police with their men‐the very same issue which had brought about the destruction of democratic government in Czechoslovakia a few months earlier. The second is the inclusion of Matthias Rikosi as one of the victims of the 1949 purge in Hungary: in reality Rikosi was the supreme director ‐under Moscow’s instructions of the purge and of the judicial murders which followed it.