General

Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe. Ed. Joep Leerssen. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; Distributed in the United States and Canada by the University of Chicago Press, 2018. 2 vol. (1488 pp.)

Divided into survey articles, thematic articles, and articles on individuals, this encyclopedia provides outstanding coverage by European scholars of the cultures of east central and southeastern Europe as well as Russia and the Baltic countries. The accompanying website http://ernie.uva.nl provides a workspace for contributors to add new and updated content enhanced by powerful relational database software.

Azerbaijan

Azärbaycan Milli Azadlıq häräkatı ensiklopediyası: Sovet rejiminä qarşı mübarizä: 1920–1991. By Näsiman Yaqublu. Baku: Qanun Näşriyyatı, 2018. 831 pp.

Encyclopedic coverage of Azerbaijan's struggle for independence from Soviet rule is provided in this work by a professor of history at Baku State University. Articles, party documents, and biographies are arranged chronologically and thematically in fifty-nine chapters. Chapter 52, for example, provides twenty pages on Azerbaijani samizdat with facsimile title pages, portraits of editors, and bibliography. Bibliographic and archival citations are frequent throughout the work. There is no index. The contributors list numbers 106 from Azerbaijan, twenty-two from Turkey, and fourteen from other countries including the late Tadeusz Świętochowski from the United States.

Kosovo

Fjalori enciklopedik i Kosovës. Ed. Mehmet Kraja. Prishtine: Akademia e Shkencave dhe e Arteve e Kosovës, 2018. 2 vol. (viii, 1818 pp.)

All of the articles in this attractive Albanian-language illustrated encyclopedia are signed. The work covers Kosovan history and culture and is especially rich in its biographical coverage, including biographies of foreign scholars whose work touches on Kosovo. The work lacks an index.

Poland

Wykaz publikacji Oficyny Poetów i Malarzy 1950–2007. By Justyna Wysocka. Krakow: Avalon, 2018. 247 pp.

An 18-page historical sketch of this important Polish émigré Cold War era publishing house is followed by an alphabetical list by author or anonymous title of 798 books and twenty serial publications. A chronological index is followed by indexes of personal names and institutions. The English name of the publisher was Poets’ and Painters’ Press, and it was founded by Krystyna and Czesław Bednarczyk. The archives of Oficyna were transferred in 2012 to the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

Russia

Bibliografiia proizvedenii A.S. Pushkina i literatury o nem, 1999 iubileinyi god. Comp. Iu. A. Sorokina and L. A. Timofeeva. St. Petersburg: Rostok, 2019. 620 pp.

2,781 Russian works by and about Pushkin published during his bicentenary are recorded and annotated in this nearly exhaustive bibliography sponsored by the Pushkin Commission. The main section (410 pages) lists books and articles, including articles in collections about Pushkin. Other sections cover his works; periodical issues devoted entirely to Pushkin; bibliographies, catalogs, and reference works; dissertation abstracts; and musical scores. The 80-page personal name index is comprehensive, and there is a separate index of Pushkin's works.

Bol΄shoi teatr Rossii v biografiiakh muzykantov: Entsiklopedicheskii slovar΄. By I. N. Parfenova. Moscow: Nauka, 2018. 348 pp.

Irina Nikolaevna Parfenova, a Bolshoi chorister since 1979 and co-author of the biobibliographic dictionary Diagilev i muzyka (Moscow, 2017) has made a major contribution to institutional history with this biographical dictionary of Bolshoi Orchestra principal musicians. The biographies are divided into three parts (imperial, Soviet, and contemporary). The first two parts include substantial historical sketches preceding the biographies. A number of the articles are in fact family histories including data on musician relatives of the main subject. A3-page bibliography lists books, articles, and internet resources. The thirty-two pages of plates include many individual and group portraits. Supplements cover the orchestra's ensembles and a section on librarians, supervisors, restorers, designers, directors, and other support staff. There is also a list of the current membership of the orchestra. Unfortunately, the work lacks an index.

Ėntsiklopedicheskii slovar΄ Iakutii. Chief ed. E.A. Borisov. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 2018. 518 pp.

Cited as major sources for this standard alphabetical encyclopedic dictionary on Yakutia are Severnaia entsiklopediia (Moscow, 2004) and the two-volume Entsiklopediia Iakutii (Moscow, 2000, Iakutsk, 2007). The articles lack bibliographic references, and there is no index.

Islam i musul΄mane postsovetskoi Rossii v rabotakh otechestvennykh issledovatelei [1992–2017]: Biobibliograficheskii slovar΄-spravochnik. Comp. M. A. Sapronova et al. Moscow: MGIMO, 2018. 82 pp.

This slim biobibliography of some forty-eight contemporary researchers in Russia is based on questionnaires completed by scholars. The paucity of works on Islam and Muslims in post-Soviet Russia led the compilers to broaden the chronological scope of the work to include the entire twentieth century.

Issledovateli russkogo zarubezh΄ia: Biobibliograficheskii slovar΄. The Researchers of Russian Diaspora: Biobibliographical Reference Book. Vol. 1. By V.L. Gentshke, I.V. Sabennikova, and A.S. Lovtsov. Moscow; Berlin: DirectMEDIA, 2018. 392 pp.

Utilizing questionnaires and substantial bibliographical research, the authors of this alphabetical biobibliography of 161 researchers on the Russian diaspora produced an important work on the topic. The compilers acknowledge that the book provides incomplete coverage of an expanding field of research and have designated it as volume one in anticipation of future enlarged editions. The scholars are mainly Russians or former Soviet citizens living in Russia or abroad. Some 53 percent specialize in history and related fields, and only about 15 percent are philologists. Bibliographers and archivists are well represented. Basic biographical and career information for each is followed by participation in cooperative research projects (with frequent citations to relevant websites), and individual bibliographies of pertinent works as well as mainly online works about them.

Khudozhniki Leningradskogo andegraunda: Biograficheskii slovar΄. By Liubov΄ Gurevich. Avangard na Neve. 2d. rev. enl. ed. St. Petersburg: Izdatel΄stvo DEAN, 2019. 447 pp.

This attractive compact paperback includes (in 385 pages) critical biographies of 141 nonconformist Leningrad artists selected from more than 400 who exhibited unofficial art from 1957 to 1985. The illustrations include photos of the artists along with samples of their works and group portraits of exhibit participants. A chronological annotated list of exhibits is divided between private apartment showings and those held at public sites in the Leningrad area. An 18-page international bibliography includes general sources followed by works by and about the individual artists. A bibliography of sources is followed by individual artist bibliographies. There is a list of artists including non-Leningraders who exhibited but are not included in the main text. The work concludes with a comprehensive index of personal names.

Liudi, gody, zhizn΄: Kafedra russkogo iazyka (1918–2018): Istoriko-biobibliograficheskoe izdanie. By A.I. Dunev et al. St. Petersburg: Izdatel΄stvo RGPU im. A.I. Gertsena, 2018. 159 pp.

The initial laconic biobibliographies in this centenary history are of noted Russian linguists (Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, D.K. Zelenin, N.M. Karinskii, E.F. Karskii, N.K. Kulmin, V.F. Miller, and Max Vasmer) who taught at the pre-revolutionary Women's Pedagogical Institute, a predecessor of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. A ten-page history of the university's Russian department is followed by biographies of the instructors, fourteen pages of plates with portraits and group portraits, bibliographies of dissertation abstracts from 1937 to 2016, 118 collective works, seventeen conference proceedings, and sixty-four works about the department's instructors.

Obshcheredaktsionnaia letuchka: 300 let…i ni dnia bez strochki…: Zhurnalisty, izdateli, organizatory pressy Sankt-Peterburga-Petrograda-Leningrada-Sankt-Peterburga, 1703–2003 gody: Bol΄shoi biograficheskii slovar΄. By A.P. Sazanov. St. Petersburg: Izdatel΄stvo Aleksandra Sazanova, 2019. 592 pp.

Some 12,790 individuals associated with mass media in St. Petersburg during the last 300 years are included in this biographical dictionary. In addition to editors, publishers, reporters, foreign correspondents, columnists, photographers, radio and television personalities, coverage includes teletypists, proofreaders, machinists, compositors, designers, circulation managers, and others. No attempt was made to cover samizdat. Place and date of birth and death and burial site is included for each alphabetical entry. The work is illustrated and includes a 7-page bibliography.

Opisanie dokumental΄nykh materialov V.V. Maiakovskogo, nakhodiashchikhsia v gosudarstvennykh khranilishchakh. Ed. T.M. Goriaeva. Moscow: Politicheskaia entsiklopediia, 2018. 2 vol. in 1. 322 pp.

The summary from WorldCat describes this work as follows: “Updated reprint with additional material of the first two volumes of V.V. Maiakovskii: Opisanie dokumental΄nykh materialov, originally published in 1964–1965 (the third volume, first published in 2013, is not included). This publication includes descriptions of ROSTA and Glavpolitprosvet (1919–1922), manuscripts of V. V. Maiakovskii, his notebooks, paintings and graphic works, posters, programs, and sound recordings held in the collections of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the State Museum of V.V. Maiakovskii, the State Museum of the History of Russian Literature named after V.I. Dahl (State Literary Museum) and other state archives.”

Rossiiskie nemtsy mezhdu Rossiei i Germaniei: Annotirovannyi bibliograficheskii ukazatel΄ (2000–2018). Comp. Wladimir Süss and Galina Smagina. Dialog dvukh kul΄tur. St. Petersburg: Rostok, 2019. 406 pp.

This annotated bibliography includes 381 entries for books, articles, conference proceedings, collections, and dissertation abstracts in Russian (including bilingual Russian-German works) concerning Germans in the Russian empire, the Soviet Union, and contemporary Russia. The subject index and index of personal names enhance the reference value of this excellent volume.

Slovar΄ psevdonimov russkogo zarubezh΄ia v Evrope (1917–1945). By Manfred Shruba. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2018. 1059 pp.

This monumental Russian pseudonym dictionary covering the first wave of Russian emigration in Europe is essential for all Russian collections. Those familiar with I.F. Masanov's 4-volume Slovar’ psevdonimov russkikh pisatelei, uchenykh i obschestvennykh deiatelei (Moscow, 1956–1960) will welcome the similar structure of this work which deciphers some 9,800 pseudonyms after examination of nearly all significant western European émigré publications. The comprehensive list of real names (autonyms) of authors and their pseudonyms is followed by 240 pages of citations for undeciphered pseudonyms. The work concludes with a complete list of the periodical publications examined. The long scholarly introduction combined with an exhaustive list of sources is impressive.

Zapadnoevropeiskie avtory XV-XVII vv. o Rossii : Materialy k biobibliograficheskomu slovariu. Comp. P.D. Malygin. Moscow: Institut arkheologii RAN, 2018. 190 pp.

Choosing authors and works with published Russian translations the compiler includes 178 individuals (sixteen of them unknown) for this biobibliographical dictionary. Thearticles include full bibliographic information for the Russian texts and the original works. Secondary literature and a summary of the text is also included.

Slovakia

Politické Slovensko: Encyklopedická príručka: Aktéri, dokumenty, inštitúcie, politické strany, udalosti. By Milan Šútovec. Bratislava: Slovart, 2019. 487 pp.

This compact wide-ranging political encyclopedia of Slovakia by a prominent public intellectual, literary scholar, and erstwhile politician includes more than 600 clearly-written articles covering some two centuries of Slovak history up to the present. Supplements include a useful list of all the articles and a selective bibliography of Slovak and Czech print and online sources. Cross references in nearly all of the articles greatly enhance the work's reference value.

Ukraine

Antolohiia znakiv ukrains'koi etnokul΄tury: Slovnyk-dovidnyk. By Vitalii Zhaivoronok. Kiev: Naukova dumka, 2018. 758 pp.

Copious usages from Ukrainian folklore, mythology, classical literature, biblical texts, religious rituals, music terms and the like fill this scholarly alphabetical dictionary-guide to Ukrainian cultural signs. A 60-page index lists all of the entry words. This work is essential for all Ukrainian culture collections.