Hadley Cantril (1906–1969)

"Soviet Leaders and Mastery Over Man" was published in 1960. It is a study of the psychology of the Soviet leadership and people. Each section begins with an assumption, explicit or implicit, about the Soviets aims and techniques in controlling the populace, and then shows through examples from specialists and/or interviews with Soviet people, how that assumption plays out in reality. Most of the assumptions are fairly obvious to modern day readers, though I am not so sure about readers in the 60s. I read the book in 3 days, it is not hard to understand, and gives a view into how the Soviets viewed us, as well as how we viewed the Soviets in the late 1950s. Probably not very useful for an understanding of present day Russia, though it could help explain the psychology of a country that continues to support such an undemocratic leader such as Putin.
Hadley Cantril is an interesting figure, a professor of psychology, he wrote an academic study of the 1940 Orson Welles' radio broadcast "The War of the Worlds" and the psychology of panic. He was also instrumental in the study of public opinion polls.… (mer)