Your review of Lilia Shevtsova and Andrew Wood’s Change or Decay: Russia’s Dilemma and the West’s Response (Washington, DC: Brookings Institute Press, 2011) appears to follow the book’s narrative pretty closely (“Slip and Slide,” November 12, 2011). The author’s joint conclusion likens Russia to a theater: “the play is over but the actors will not leave the stage and keep trying to win attention for what has become a plotless rigmarole; the audience feels trapped, bored, and frustrated.” The reviewer included, no doubt. What you seem to neglect is the Russian complex, though. Or the Slavic complex, to be a bit more exact. The last to come to Europe, Slavs have always looked for a plot. Any plot. Socialism and/or communism came handy a century ago to propel them onto the stage. Center stage, no less. Entirely plotless for the last couple of decades, they will not leave the stage. Feeling flouted and forlorn once again, they simply cannot. But the audience, especially from the so-called west, had better pay attention. For some horrible plot may soon emerge to assuage the old complex. And that seems to be the book’s simple but solemn message.