Belarus

Frantsysk Skaryna: Entsyklapedyia. Ed. Vladimir Vladimirovich Andrievich and Aiaksandr Aliaksandravich Susha. Minsk: Belaruskaia entsyklapedyia imia Petrusia Brouki, 2017. 565 pp.

Scholars from the National Library of Belarus, the Belarusian Academy's Center for Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Research, and three major Belarusian universities produced this comprehensive Belarusian Skaryna encyclopedia to mark the 500^th anniversary of the publication of his Psalter. Articles (many of them signed) about every aspect of Skaryna's life and legacy follow a brief introduction, with many color illustrations of sculptures, monuments, and paintings and other iconography. The numerous articles about Skaryna's individual printings include abundant facsimiles from the National Library of Belarus collections. The articles include archival and bibliographical references, but there is no separate bibliography or index. An earlier Skaryna encyclopedia Frantsysk Skaryna I iaho chas appeared in 1988 and a Russian translation Frantsisk Skorina I ego vremia was published in Minsk in 1990.

Bulgaria

Entsiklopediia Sofiia. Encyclopedia Sofia. By Tania Kadiyska, Elena Blazheva, and Mariana Savova. Sofia: Knigoizdatelska kushta “Trud,” 2017. 414 pp.

Bulgarian and English versions of the thematically arranged articles are presented in parallel columns in this bilingual illustrated encyclopedia of Sofia, which includes separate Bulgarian and English indexes of personal names. The articles include cross references.

Czech Republic

Biografický slovník náčelníků operativních správ Státní bezpečnosti v letech 1953–1989. By Milan Bárta, et al. Ed. Jan Kalous and Pavel Žáček. Prague: Academia: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, 2017. 582 pp.

This thoroughly documented reference work on the security services in communist Czechoslovakia fills a major historical gap. A biobibliographical dictionary of sixty-four principal officers of the secret police, military intelligence, and espionage agencies (185–544) includes signed articles, portraits, and extensive bibliographies. Auxiliary features include a 16-page section of photographs, an index of personal names, list of abbreviations, and a selective bibliography including archival sources, books, articles, and internet links. Introductory essays (175 pages with 358 bibliographical footnotes and numerous facsimiles of archival documents) outline the history of each of the major security departments.

Estonia

Eesti Vabariik 100: TEA entsüklopeedia eriväljaanne. Chief ed. Ahti Tomingas. Tallinn: Esmatrükk 2017. 394 pp.

With more than 1,000 maps, charts, and photographs, this Estonian-language encyclopedia celebrates the 100^th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. The main sections are history, population, nature, economy, and culture. The historical section includes several chronologies and lists of political leaders up to the present. The articles are not signed, and there is no index or bibliography.

Poland

“Ateneum Polskie” 1908, “Przegląd Narodowy” 1908–1914: Adnotowana bibliografia zawartości. By Aleksandra Lubczyńska. Kielce: Kieleckie Towarzystwo Naukowe, 2017. 226 pp.

The study of Polish nationalism is facilitated by this annotated listing and indexing of the contents of these important journals. 240 articles from Ateneum Polskie and 803 from Przegląd Narodowy are cited and indexed by author and subject. A 22-item bibliography is included.

Leksykon polskich partii politycznych. Ed. Rafał Glajcar, Agnieszka Turska-Kawa, and Waldemar Wojtasik. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2017. 713 pp.

Signed articles on each of more than 340 Polish political parties established after 1990 are included in ths reference work. The editors’ essay on the evolution of the parties from 1990 to 2016 is followed by a bibliography of eighteen mainly English-language sources. A supplement includes seventeen pages of tables, mainly election results. The work concludes with an index of personal names.

Polscy pionierzy lotnictwa 1647–1918. By Stanisław Januszewski. Wrocław: Fundacja Otwartego Muzeum Techniki, 2017. Vol. 1. 670 pp.

Exhaustive biographical coverage of Poles associated with aviation or aeronautics is a feature of this work. Volume 1 covers A-Z for the period 1647–1918. There are eighteen entries for anonymous individuals or groups, and numerous one-sentence (often surname only) entries from aviation school class lists or membership lists of flying clubs. Many emigre Poles are included along with foreigners having some connection to Poland.

Romania

Femei de seamă din Romania: De ieri şi de azi. By George Marcu. Bucharest: Meronia, 2017. 495 pp.

Substantial biographical sketches of more than 600 Romanian women are preceded in this dictionary by a chronology (1815–2014) of the Romanian feminist movement (15–20) and a hall of fame list of notable Romanian female personalities in many fields (21–31). Supplements include a selective bibliography and a 16-page section of plates with 192 portraits.

Russia

Chistopol΄ literaturnyi: Entsiklopediia. By Nail΄ Valeev and Ramil΄ Sarchin. Kazan΄: Izdatel΄stvo “Zaman,” 2017. 559 pp.

Coverage of leading Moscow writers and intellectuals who were evacuated to Chistopol΄ during the first weeks of World War II lends special interest to this regional literary encyclopedia. Many portraits and illustrations of title pages, manuscripts, and literary landmarks are included.

“Den΄” I. S. Aksakova: Istoriia slavianofil΄skoi gazety: Issledovaniia, materialy, postateinaia rospis΄. Ed. N. N. Vikhrova, A. P. Dmitriev, and B. F. Egorov. Slavianofil΄skii arkhiv, no. 5. Vol. 1 (814 pp.) St. Petersburg: Rostok, 2017.

A complete chronological list of articles and an author index including biographical notes and deciphered pseudonyms comprises pages 517 to 811 of this documentary history of Ivan Aksakov's often censored Slavophile newspaper Den΄ (1861–1865).

Ekologicheskii atlas Rossii. Ed. Nikolai Sergeevich Kasimov, et al. Moscow: Feoriia, 2017. 509 pp.

This excellent ecological atlas includes more than 200 maps and signed scholarly articles contributed from more than thirty organizations. The international bibliography has 314 items and about thirty websites. It is an essential source for Russian reference collections.

Entsiklopediia turizma. Ed. A.A. Fedulin and N.A. Platonova. Moscow: NP “KiT”: VO “Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi universitet turizma i servisa,” 2017. 495 pp.

The chapters in this systematic illustrated guide to tourism include topics such as 1. Classification of types of tourism; 2. Nature and ecotourism; 3. Culture, religion, ethnography; 4. Food, wine, industrial, scientific, education, language, agrotourism; 5. Business, trade, adventure, festivals, weddings; 6. Cycling, Alpine skiing, equestrian: 7. Military, gaming, pilgrimage, pop culture, cinema, sacred places. Separate topical bibliographies include English-language titles, and there are many references to foreign tourism. Supplements include Russian and foreign glossaries of terms and abbreviations.

Etnograficheskaia entsiklopediia Volgogradskoi oblasti. Ethnographic encyclopedia of the Volgograd region. Chief ed. M.A. Ryblova. Volgograd: Volgogradskii gosudarstvennyi universitet, 2017. 542 pp.

Signed biobibliographical articles about leading ethnographers, cultural historians, ethnomusicologists, and others; essays on museums, demography, mores, costume, religion, music, and the like fill this standard encyclopedia. A major appeal of the work is the concluding 158-page section of illustrations of the architecture, costumes, artifacts, and photographs of everyday life in the region.

Evrei v NKVD SSSR 1936–1938 gg. : Opyt biograficheskogo slovaria. 2d. ed. rev. and enl. By M.A. Tumshis and V.A. Zolotarev. Moscow: Universitet Dmitriia Pozharskogo, 2017. 824 pp.

A 63-page introduction with tables comparing the numbers and percentages of supervisory and other Jews in the NKVD in 1936–37 with 1938 and 1939 immediately following the Great Terror purges precedes the biographies of Jewish NKVD operatives (71–73) during that period. The work includes an 11-page bibliography and provides source material for exploration of suggested antisemitism in the official post-Terror purging of the purgers.

Filosofskaia i obshchestvennaia mysl΄ v zhurnalakh russkogo zarubezh΄ia (sorokovye-shestidesiatye gody XX veka): Bibliograficheskii ukazatel΄. By A.A. Ermichev. St. Petersburg: Izdatel΄stvo Russkoi khristianskoi gumanitarnoi akademii, 2016. 318 pp.

This listing of articles in Russian émigré journals of the 1940s through the 1960s is arranged under four broad journal subject categories. Under the journal titles in each category, articles are alphabetical by author's name. The work includes a subject index and indexes of authors and personalities.

Istoriia zarubezhnykh stran: Ukazatel΄ bibliograficheskikh posobii, izdannykh v Rossiiskoi Federatsii (1996–2010 gg. s dopolneniiami za 1957–1995 g.) By M.A. Mamontov. St. Petersburg: Rossiiskaia natsional΄naia biblioteka, 2017. 616 pp.

This fourth volume in the standard scholarly bibliography of Russian studies on world history has 4,996 entries indexed by personal name, title, and series. The vast majority of items were examined de visu, and items missing from the collections of Russian National Library are marked with asterisks. The history of Crimea is covered only beginning in 1991. The first volume in the series by Boris L΄vovich Kandel΄ published in 1966 covered 1857–1965.

Kto est΄ kto. Statusnaia elita Rossiiskoi Federatsii: Spravochnik. Comp. A.V. Mendiukov, S. G. Shilova, and E. N. Shmatov. Moscow: Universitet Dmitriia Pozharskogo, 2017. 584 pp.

This Russian who's who has brief directory information (obtained from published sources and not including email addresses) for some 10,000 prominent Russians (entertainers, athletes, entrepreneurs, scientists, educators, and others in addition to government officials).

Lermontov i ego okruzhenie: Biograficheskii slovar΄. By D.A. Alekseev. Moscow: Drevlekhranilishche, 2017. 2 vols. (495, 486 pp.)

Prolific Lermontov scholar D.A. Alekseev presents biobibliographies of some 200 friends and acquaintances of the famous writer with abundant archival references and extensive notes regarding their personal relationships. The exhaustive coverage of archival sources includes numerous quotations from correspondence and literary works. The work lacks indexes.

Mandel΄shtamovskaia entsiklopediia. Ed. P.M. Nerler and O.A. Lekmanov. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2017. 2 vols. (574, 485 pp.)

Major efforts starting in 1991 have resulted in this comprehensive scholarly Osip Mandel΄shtam encyclopedia with more than 600 signed articles by a 150-member author collective. The second volume includes a wealth of detailed bibliographical material essential for any serious Mandel΄shtam scholar. There is no index.

Muzykal΄nye muzei Rossii: Entsiklopedicheskii spravochnik. By E.D. Krivitskaia and K.I. Novokhat΄ko. Moscow: Kompozitor, 2017. 280 pp.

The arrangement of this illustrated guide to sixty-three Russian musical museums is alphabetical by city. Street, email, and website addresses and telephone numbers are provided along with the names of directors. Bibliographic references accompany some of the descriptive articles.

Rossiia v 1917 godu: Entsiklopediia. Chief ed. A.K. Sorokin. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2017. 1093 pp.

This alphabetical historical encyclopedia gives wide coverage of the political, economic, social, and cultural milieus, personalities, institutions, and events in 1917 throughout the Russian empire. Basic bibliographies and archival references accompany lengthy scholarly articles in this essential illustrated reference source.

Russkaia khudozhestvennaia keramika VIII–XXI veka: Illiustrirovannaia entsiklopediia: Istoriia iskusstva keramiki v Rossii. By M.A. Nekrasova. Moscow: Academia, 2017. 709 pp.

Author, compiler, and editor M.A. Nekrasova's historical introduction to this comprehensive alphabetical encyclopedia of Russian ceramic art precedes the scholarly biobibliographies of individual ceramicists and their art, mostly with accompanying portraits, and signed essays with abundant illustrations on every aspect of the art. Several of the long articles about individual factories include annotated lists of the artisans associated with the institutions.

Russkie literaturovedy XX veka: Biobibliograficheskii slovar΄. Chief ed. O.A. Kling; Comp. A.A. Kholikov. 2017. Moscow: Nestor-Istoriia, 2017. Vol. 1. 530 pp.

This major new reference resource on Russian literature is the product of literary scholars at Moscow University and other Russian learned institutions. More than 250 individuals contributed to the first volume (A-L) which includes biobibliographies of 378 twentieth-century Russian literary critics. The highest standards of Russian bibliographic methodology are evident throughout the book. Coverage of Russian émigré critics is excellent. The authors use contemporary approaches to reevaluate the legacies of the major critics. Two sections of plates include numerous informal portraits of the critics.

Russkii fol΄klor. Bibliograficheskii ukazatel΄: 1856–1880. Comp. A.I. Vaskul. St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriia, 2017. 575 pp.

This eleventh volume (the first since 2001) of the standard bibliography of Russian folklore initiated by the eminent folklore scholar-bibliographer Mikaela Iakovlevna Mel΄ts fills in the remaining historical gap in bibliographical coverage of Russian publishing and scholarship since 1800. The work includes 4,537 carefully annotated items indexed by geographical locations and personal names with a list of sources.

Russkoe arkheologicheskoe obshchestvo za tret΄iu chetvert΄ veka svoego sushchestvovaniia: 1897–1921. Istoricheskii ocherk: Prilozhenie biobibliograficheskii slovar΄ chlenov RAO (1846–1924). By S.A. Zhebelev. Ad fontes materialy i issledovaniia po istorii nauki. Supplementum; 5. Moscow: “Indrik,” 2017. 670 pp.

A comprehensive biobibliographical dictionary of the Russian and foreign members of the Russian Archaeological Society makes up about three fourths of this volume. The dictionary, compiled and edited by I.V. Tunkina, includes signed articles and portraits. The previously unpublished historical essay by Sergei Aleksandrovich Zhebelev (1867–1941) is included with commentaries and marks the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his birth. The work includes a 20-page index of personal names.

Senatory Grazhdanskogo kassatsionnogo departamenta Pravitel΄stvuiushchego Senata 1866–1917 gg. : Kratkii biograficheskii spravochnik. Comp. O.Iu. Shilokhvost. Moscow: Statut, 2017. 165 pp.

The Civil Cassation Department of the Senate formed during the Great Reforms of Alexander II is the subject of this slim biographical dictionary based mainly on official service lists. A 22-page collective portrait of the senators introduces the 176 individual biographies, and the work concludes with a 9-page international bibliography.

Televidenie. Teoriia, istoriia, praktika: Bibliograficheskii ukazatel΄ 1958–2017. Chief ed. V.T. Tret΄iakov. Moscow: Aspekt Press, 2018. 223 pp.

Divided into sixteen subject classes the 2,490 bibliographic entries in this work are Russian-language books and articles (including translations). The sections on bibliographies, reference sources, and subject dictionaries are especially relevant. An index of personal names is appended.

Zarubezhnaia Rossiiia. Organizatsii rossiiskoii emigratsii 1917–1939: Materialy k mezharkhivnomu spravochniku. By I.V. Sabennikova, V.L. Gentshke, and A.S. Lovtsov. Moscow, Berlin: DirectMEDIA, 2017. 403 pp.

This miscellaneous collection of archival materials on the first wave of Russian emigration (organizations, personalities, publications) appears in sixteen sections. Directory information is focused mainly on archives in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia.

Ukraine

Ukrains΄ka kanadiana: Anotovanyi pokazhchyk vydan΄ z fondu Natsional΄no ibiblioteky Ukrainy imeni V.I. Vernads΄koho. By Nataliia Solons΄ka and Halyna Borysovych. Kyiv: Natsional΄na biblioteka Ukrainy imeni V.I. Vernads΄koho NAN Ukrainy, 2017. 171 pp.

A brief outline with fifty-six bibliographical references of the 125-year history of Ukrainian communities in Canada introduces this partially annotated chronological list (397 entries up to 2015) of books and almanacs on this topic held by the Vernadsky National Library. Most of the works are in Ukrainian, but English-language titles are also included. The catalog has author and title indexes.