Russia and Eastern Europe: A Bibliographic Guide to English‐Language Publications 1992‐1999

Citation

Hurych, J. (2002), "Russia and Eastern Europe: A Bibliographic Guide to English‐Language Publications 1992‐1999", Collection Building, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 185-186. https://doi.org/10.1108/cb.2002.21.4.185.3

This volume, with 1,706 annotated items, is an impressive undertaking by two library faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign. The work is a continuation of earlier bibliographic guides to English‐language publications on Eastern Europe by Stephan Horak and later supplements by the present authors. Horak’s guide and subsequent two supplements cover publications from 1900 to 1986. Sullivan and Burger published two bibliographic guides previously, one containing publications on Russia and the former Soviet Union (1986‐1991); the other, publications on other countries of Eastern Europe (1986‐1993). The present guide is an update, bringing all the publications to the end of the twentieth century.

The 1990s were years of revolutionary changes in Eastern Europe, with the transition of communist regimes to democracies and market economies. These were also years of great political unrest and civil wars in some parts of the region. All these events stimulated a great deal of scholarly interest in the area, and many books on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were published during the 1990s.

Sullivan and Burger’s guide covers Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the states of the former Yugoslavia. The authors claim that their book is a representative selection of titles rather than a comprehensive listing. The titles were selected from the OCLC World Cat database and from books reviewed in the Slavic Review.

Although there may be some occasional omissions in an undertaking of this magnitude, the authors have very little for which to apologize. They provide a list of categories of materials that were excluded, such as most government publications, dissertations and theses, non‐book media, etc. The arrangement follows the original Horak’s Guide, and titles are numbered consecutively throughout. Items are arranged by country and within each country by a subject area. Each entry includes, in addition to complete bibliographic information, a descriptive annotation. It seems that the two authors personally examined each item or at least a review of each item included in this guide. The annotations are not critical; they describe the topic, arrangement, special features and intended audience.

This guide will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students of individual countries that have been traditionally grouped under the label of Eastern Europe. The selection of titles demonstrates how culturally different they are from each other despite having had similar political regimes. Anyone who is seriously interested in this part of Europe should know about this volume. It is highly recommended for all academic libraries.