Review by Choice Review
In the Foreword the editor identifies this volume as the second edition of a 1978 work, Who's Who in the Socialist Countries. The present edition covers up to 1982 for government and trade union officials, but only to 1976 for authors, artists, and other groups because no new information has become available for them. It is probably for this reason that an attempt to verify names in Soviet Life periodical issues for 1981, and in more current CIA publications, produced few matches. For example, three of six authors of scientific articles in Soviet Life appear in Who's Who; the proportion would have been almost zero if all the authors in an issue had been checked. A CIA chart for April 1985 listed sixteen military district governors; only three of those were also identified in the Who's Who ``Commanding Military Districts.'' However, as the editor states, the index sections are very helpful and serve as a political science short course in the USSR Communist party and governmental hierarchies. For each of the fourteen Soviet Socialist Republics, leaders are listed for the Communist party, the government, the Komsomol, and the Trade Union Council. Other indexes list scientists and their specific fields and include art critics, literary historians, theatrical scholars, and philosophers. The ``Artist'' listing includes singers, actresses, ballerinas, and film directors. Authors, athletes, cosmonauts, jurists, ecclesiastical dignitaries, architects, and four journalists are also identified. Three final listings name those who have retired, died, or been relieved and dismissed since the first edition was published. Most appropriate for libraries where in-depth research in Soviet studies is being pursued. University collections.-L.P. Mills, Western Illinois University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
