edition kindly provided by the Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut) - May 2007 Viktor Kravchenko’s book “I Chose Freedom” made a splash in America and became universally famous. Viktor Kravchenko, a former communist and a major employee of the Soviet apparatus, took advantage of his business trip to America to break with the Soviet regime. He became a defector. His book, which illuminates with exceptional truthfulness the life of the Soviet country, the ruling elite and the oppressed lower classes, played a significant role in shaping the correct attitude of world public opinion in the Soviet totalitarian regime.