13 SEPTEMBER 1997, Page 32

Sir: Throughout the whole of last week I experienced a

feeling of dejd vu. Finally another week of mourning came back to me: namely that which took place in the Soviet Union in March 1953 after the death of Joseph Stalin, when a massive and unre- stricted brainwashing campaign by the media and the government wrought the population into a state of hysteria and idoli- sation.

Oleg Gordievsky

c/o A.M. Heath, 79 St Martin's Lane, London WC2