The Longman Companion to Imperial Russia, 1689-1917 by David LongleyReview by: Janet HartleyThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 79, No. 2 (Apr., 2001), pp. 349-350Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4213221 .

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REVIEWS 349

pomestie system a Russian variant of the European concept of social contract (obshchestvennyi dogovor).

Gyula Szvak writes relatively conventionally about the evolution of princely power in Russia as a function of the conflict between boiarstvo and narod, but he compares in an interesting fashion the Russian pomestie, the Turkish timar, the Frankish beneficium, the Kazan soiurgal, and the Byzantine pronoia.

One general though perhaps unconscious characteristic of the works presented in this volume is especially worth mentioning, particularly in light of the recent arguments on the subject of this volume in the conspicuous work of Martin Malia, Russia under Western Eyes (see forthcoming review, SEER, 79:3, July 200I): the vast variety of scholars represented here, with all of their motley national cultural backgrounds, virtually unanimously use the term European in a fashion that excludes Russia. This is a fact not easily overlooked in the debate on the question.

Tuscaloosa, Alabama HUGH RAGSDALE

Longley, David. 7The Longman Companion to Imperial Russia, I689-I9 17. Pearson Education/Longman, Harlow, 2000. xvii + 452 pp. Index. /14.95 (paperback).

THE main body of this book (some 300 pages) comprises detailed chronologies divided in the following categories: internal politics (central government, armed forces, social unrest and revolution); social, economic and cultural developments; nationalities; foreign policy and war. The other main section comprises biographies of leading figures (eighty pages). The author also provides four maps, a glossary of Russian terms, appendices (on the Russian alphabet, note on calendars, Russian names), a guide to further reading and a list of variant spellings of place names.

This book has some very impressive features: it encompasses a vast amount of material in a relatively short space (and at a relatively modest price); the material that I checked was accurate (although some of the early section on education is rather misleading); the lists of ministers and other leading officials are helpful; the administrative, cultural and foreign relations sections are particularly detailed and informative; the biographies are full and well chosen (although inevitably there are others who could have been included, for example, E. F. Kankrin, S. D. Sazonov, I. V. Goremykin); the index (of great importance in a work such as this) is generally accurate; the inclusion of stress marks for Russian names and words is useful.

It is, of course, always easier to criticize than to praise a reference work of this nature which lays itself open to uncharitable reviewers who can pounce on some of the inevitable errors or omissions which occur. Here are some on my list: four different spellings of Vil'na in the text none of which correspond to the index entries (one of which is a misspelling); the misspelling of Kommerts kollegiia (p. IO7); Russian 'Authography' in place of 'Orthography' (p. 327); inconsistent transliteration (not entirely countered by the author's own explanation of his usage in the preface); oddly-chosen maps which seem not to have been proof-read (e.g. Krusk for Kursk on p. xiii); some surprising

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350 SEER, 79, 2, 2001

inclusions in the glossary (e.g. Young Turks) but exclusions of some Russian terms which appear in the text (e.g. Preobrazhenskaia kantseliariia); missing accents in some of the list of placenames (e.g. Hango, Lw6w). It is also a pity that the 'Guide to Further Reading' seems to end in i 997 in a book published in 2000, not just because it means the exclusion of my own Social Histogy of the Russian Empire I650-I825 (and also published by Longman) but also, more importantly, that of Russia in the Age of Peter the Great by Lindsey Hughes. The structure of the book and the divisions in the chronologies also leads, at least to my mind, to some anomalies: the glossary is poorly placed three-quarters of the way through the book; the division into geographical zones of foreign policy works well for wars with one country but poorly for the Great Northern War and the Napoleonic Wars; matching legislation is awkwardly divided by theme, so that, for example, the Charters to the Nobles and to the Towns which were issued on the same day in I 785 are described quite separately on pages 15- I 6 and i o0; the Decembrist movement is listed under 'Revolution- ary and Labour Movements' but does not appear alongside other militaryr protests under 'The Armed Forces'; the balance of material relating to foreign policy and war is weighted very heavily towards the twentieth century.

Some of these points are, of course, simply a matter of preference. They do not detract from a book which is generally sound, immensely detailed and certainly better than anything else available on the market (and, in particular, it is a great improvement on J. Paxton's Companion to Russian Histoy (New York, I983). I would therefore dispute the author's modest assumption that the 'typical reader will be non-Russian speaking' (p. viii); students of Russian language, culture and history and their teachers will find much here of interest and of value.

Department of International History JANET HARTLEY

London School ofEconomics and Political Science

Jedlicki, Jerzy. A Suburb of Europe. Nineteenth-Centur) Polish Approaches to Jl7estern Civilization. Central European University Press, Budapest, I 999). xxvii + 307 pp. Notes. Maps. Bibliography. Index. f31.OO; f 2.50.

SCRUTINIZING and evaluating I 00 years of Polish political, social and economic thought and its impact on the history of the nationi cannot be anything but a real challenge. It requires from the writer not only a thorough knowledge of all the issues involved, but also an intimate familiarity with the intricate linkages between the original native utterances and the clearly discernible and significant foreign influences. To succeed in his task the writer must carefully select what he judges to count as important and dismiss what he considers as trivial and inconsequential and be able to reach the heart of the matter. He must ensure that the arguments and the controversies which have raged for years and often decades have lost nothing of their original force and the power to attract; and, with the help of carefully selected extracts from the key texts, he must be able to point out the immediate as well as the long-term consequences of the stand taken by the relevant thinkers anld thus retain the reader's interest until the very last page of his work. This very substantial book

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