Awful commie propaganda. Slanderous portraits of Liberals and of the Whites in the civil war. Wafer-thin characters all around, from decadent blood-sucking nobles to gooey warm camaraderie amongst their "class enemies." Read Tolstoy instead. Life is too short.

Certainly a masterpiece, spellbinding for 1300 pp., I happened on this amazing book as a remainder at The Strand in New York. Difficulty keeping the generals apart and whose side they were on, but a captivating story that has led me to learn to read and write Russian with hopes of living there/studying there. I had been a fan of Russian poetry for a while, esp Ahkmatova, but this is really simply an unbelievable story. Would be interested in reading more about World War I and this part of the world. Read The Guns of August and now need to read the equivalent for this area. Your suggestions are encouraged.

This is the second time I've read this thousand over page tome and it's truly magnificent. The greatest Russian/Soviet novel this century. Sholokhov is in the ranks of Tolstoy, Turgenev and Dostoevsky. An intensely beautiful, powerful and action filled tale of heroes in a land changed forever by war and revolution.

As an avid patron of the New York City Ballet, I purchased Tributes hoping to learn more about the ballets and dancers who have been part of the Company at present and during their fifty year history. While the book itself is a nice presentation, with some interesting tidbits, but there is little if any of the information I was after. Mostly, the "tributes" are from writers and visual artists who are as interested in the ballet as I am. But I cannot help but to get the feeling that the book is a self-aggrandizing tome to their own selves courtesy of their close-knit artsy-fartsy friends.There are some truly beautiful photographs, such as Allegra Kent and Edward Villella on the cover, as well as some artist renderings of set designs. I would have loved to see more of the beautiful costumes (especially by Karinska) and perhaps a brief history of ballet. I would have liked notes about each of the pieces performed throughout their fifty year history as well as biographies and new photographs of the principal dancers. I mean, of course there is a picture of the current prima ballerina, Darci Kistler because not only is she a terrific dancer but she is married to Peter Martins who was a dancer and is the current Ballet Master in Chief of the NYCB (but so much for nepotism because there is no photograph of his son, Nilas, who is also a principal dancer at the NYCB). The contributors to Tributes are impressive as is the NYCB and it is too bad that the book falls short and that more thought did not go into this book to truly make it as wonderful a treasure as the company itself.

This is a book with many types of media tributes to the NYC ballet...if you are looking for a book with illus. devoted to the ballet...you need to look further.

This book had exquisite pictures of famous and unknown dancers from Tallchief to Susan and even the great man behind all the beautiful dancers. Worth every penny

I have had to read this book on two separate occassions, both in high school and college. I still wonder why. While it does give a somewhat humorous look into everyday life in communist Russia, the stories have seemingly very little significance (perhaps that is the point?). I have trouble finding this book's relevance to classes. I guess some literary works are timeless...this one is not.

Zoshchenko's riffs on the middling class ring as true in today's America.

Although I have not read the whole book, the stories in it are superb. They each have their own comical sense, but behind them there is a greater meaning. They reflect so much about Communist Russia, while being still enjoyable reading. A must.

I have not read Christianity in Bakhtin, but the advertising blurb that represents it as "the first full-length work to approach Bakhtin from a religious perspective" might be overstating the case. Another book, Corporeal Words: Mikhail Bakhtin's Theology of Discourse, by Alexandar Mihailovic (Studies in Russian Literature and Theory, Northwestern, 1997), has already addressed some of the same ideas suggested by the title of the other book.

I'm not sure how Mr. Kowal can review a book, much less give it three stars, without having read it. His complaint that this book is not the only book to deal with Christianity in Bakhtin could have been eliminated had he read Coates' work. At the time her book went to press "Corporeal Worlds" had not been published. In a footnote on page 177, she mentions "Corporeal Worlds" and acknowledges that, from what she has heard, Mihailovic's view of Bakhtin seems to be similar to her own. She goes on to write that she was unable to obtain a copy before submitting her manuscript to the publisher. Of course, one would have to read it in order to know this information. As for the book itself, it is a clear, well-written work that adds to the growing Bakhtin literature here in the west. Coates has explored a much neglected and important aspect of Bakhtin's work. The fact that she was unable to read the at-that-time unpublished "Corporeal Worlds" is hardly a criticism. (Just because a copyright date is one year earlier doesn't mean that the work was available at the time the more recent book had to go to press.)

... How about we change the title to "Easy as it gets" guide to the bla bla opening? How much easier can you make the Dragon? Mr. G covers all the main lines, most of the obscure ones, and through my study of this book I've been able to gain excellent positions. As someone who knew a "little" about the dragon, this book has been an excellent "next step". So far I haven't felt the need to get another book on this opening.

There is very little verbal explanation in this book - one is simply shown masses of variations. Tis is typical of sharp lines like the Sicilian Dragon - hence, there is no point in really claiming to write Easy Guides on such Openings.

However, the book scores highly on all other points - good writing/translation and evaluations and assessments of critical and off beat lines by the author( a Dragon expert and GM practitioner who has introduced a few novelties in this opening). I prefer this book to the Gufeld-Stetsko book on the same opening, though I think players new to the Dragon should not expect to find loads of words that make thier lives easier.

Highly recommended to any Dragon player, and is content-wise deserving of 5 stars. However, that misleading title...

This book is very well researched but it's an incredibly boring read. If you're interested in things like Soviet wheat production in the 1940's, this is the book for you. The writer does a good job of showing how the twisted Soviet ideology made the U.S.S.R. more than just your "typical" dictatorship. The book makes it all too clear that the country under Stalin was simply a hell on earth. Unfortunately, personalities and geopolitical situations are given very short shrift and this is what makes the book such a difficult read. The book condenses far too much concering the immediate pre-Revolutionary era as well as the Revolution itself and the subsequent consolidation. One scarcely has an idea why it happened or why the people who led it tried to make it come about. Some fascinating passages concern the time just after after St. Petersburg falls. The Bolsheviks simply wait and do nothing, apparently believing that the historical "laws" set forth by Marx will soon kick into gear and communism will just appear. Instead things turn bloody quickly. Tragic and comic all at once. A bit more of this kind of thing would have made for a better read. By the end of the book the author ignores the conclusion his own book should have been leading him too. He shows how the Soviet Union had become a stagnant backward hopeless mess with an embittered populace, yet he fails to see its inevitable collapse which occurred just shortly after the publication of the book. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose but if the CIA had had a few copies of this book back in the 1980's, perhaps they would not have been so blindsided.

Heller and Nekrich have written a comprehensive, indepth history of the Soviet Union. They give a perspective that is not politicized nor P.C., but factual. A must read for 20th century scholors and students. I would also highly recommend Heller's book "Cogs in the Wheel" to understand how the Soviet Union tried to reshape humane nature.

A good starting point for learning the mathematics of surveys, and survey adjustments. For those interested in more detail on Least Squares methods, I'd recommend the same author's followup book: "Observations and Least Squares"

Exciting and full of details regarding life in a Russian work camp. Reads along the lines of Slavomir Rawociz and Richard Wurmbrand, two great men who also survived incredible odds. This is a fast-paced, spell-binding book!

The Cogs is revealing many interesting operations that were going on in an experimentive society. Sometimes the style is extremely bitter, but sometime it is very funny: Obviously the historian is speaking not only about dry facts, but from an experience. Note the year of first publishing 1980:Geller was ahead of his time analyzing so sharply the mechanisms of subject technology- this book tells us about a totalitarian operation over personality.

A Polish joke from the book :

Poland, Soviet Union and USA were competing over who has the most modern computer: The test was done with a sentence "Why is there no meat?"

After feeding the test sentence to all the computers, first of all the Polish computer noted that it could not solve the question, because its dictionary did not include word "meat".

Secondly the USA made computer failed, because its dictionary did not include word "no".

After some time the Soviet computer failed due to the fact, that the computer's dictionary did not include the word "Why".

I do recommend this book.

Published in 1995, this 125 page volume is considered a 'delayed King's Gambit'. Move order for White usually consists of 1.e4 2.Nc3 3.Bc4 4.d3 5.f4 6.Nf3 and 7.O-O Unlike the King's Gambit though, the F pawn is protected on it's release by the Queen's Bishop since the Queen's Pawn is previously moved to d3. The King's Rook at some point should have a half-open F file to manuever on, which does have it's advantages. The downside to this opening is that it doesn't place pressure on Black's King Pawn immediately, giving Black more room to breathe so to speak in the very beginning. White has a choice of quiet strategic lines and violent gambits. Fun to pull out to surprise your opponent.