Brilliant satire at human aspects of life in the Soviet Union, some times interlaced with poignant notes of nostalgia. I haven't read the translation to English, the original however is fabulous!

All I can say is that if you're serious about film, you're serious about Eisenstein, and in that case, you you should have access to this volume of his theories. Here we get many more diverse sources to Eisenstein's thoughts, as Martin Lefebvre wrote in his extended study for Screen 41.4, one of which is classical rhetoric and ideas of religious ecstasy. Revisiting Eisenstein may now be more important than ever w/ the various newcomers to "filmmaking" in the non-stop emergence of new forms and formats for motion pictures and with them new possibilities to explore and experiment with narration.

Oracle Express OLAP is a comprehensive, definitive, "user friendly" guide to all facets of developing Corporate Data Analysis Systems based on Data Warehousing technology and OLAP. With a complete description of OLAP and Data Warehousing technology, how to create, load, and administer multidimensional databases, and techniques for creating end user OLAP applications, Oracle Express OLAP is far-reaching, profound, and one hundred percent practical in the information it encompasses and presents for easy access. Written in a very down-to-earth an accessible style, especially for technical reference books, Oracle Express OLAP is an absolute "must" for any programmer, systems analyst or database technician who works with Data Warehousing technology and OLAP!

The imminent canonization of Mother Maria Skobtsova is long overdue. Unfortunatly it's the same old story; with her strong will and determination she was seen by some people as a "troublemaker" and a nuisance. But happily that great churchman, Metropolitan Evlogy, Exarch of Western Europe, saw beyond this and recognized her as a woman of exceptional qualities. Living as a nun "in the world" she couldn't hide anything and didn't intend to. She fought her battles, often alone, but she brought love and comfort to many. She lived in Paris at the time Ernest Hemingway lived there too, but this is not the story of the "moveable feast". It's the story of those less fortunate whose goal of the day were to survive illnesses, epidemics, frost, and starvation. Two clean different pictures. By the grace of God, Mother Maria Skobtsova will be officially proclaimed a saint - a status she've had for many people since her horrible death in a Nazi KZ in Easter 1945. Now we wait for a broad presentation of her poetry; a subject only touched from time to time in this book. We are, though, grateful to the unselfish work of the author, Sergei Hackel.

I've heard the prelude in c# minor before, but i never realized that it is a duet for four hands and two pianos. I only discovered that after I bought this copy. The prelude is complete, having both parts in a nice piano book. I can't play it, but for anyone who wants to learn it, this is a good copy to get.

for those of u that saw "shrine" i guess u already discovered the "magical" feeling after hearing this piece. w/ this arrangement the piece could be played by two ppl instead of w/ the orch... makes things simplier but sounds just as nice.

Rachmaninoff is a must for an aspiring pianist. Especially, the second piano concerto which is one of his famous if not the most famous pieces. I would suggest going out and reading some background information on Rachmaninoff before trying to interpret the piece.

The book is titled Rachmaninoff - Composer, Pianist, Conductor and is divided into sections which study each of these areas in the great composer's career. Rachmaninoff had many talents and at various times in his life pursued all of them. Composing was his first love, but the disasterous premier of his first symphony almost wrecked that career. After recovering from depression and regaining his skills, Rachmaninoff made a name for himself as a conductor. Then chased out of Russia by the revolution, he became a concert pianist to make a living and earned world-wide fame as an interpretor.

Barrrie Martyn's book is definitive in delving into these three lives particularly the section on the composer. All of Rachmaninoff's works are discussed in great detail with musical examples. The appendix contains his entire discography as well as all the works conducted and concerts given. No Rachmaninoff fan or music historian should be without this book.

Michael Urban, The Rebirth of Politics in Russia Cambridge University Press, New York, 1997 + 429 pages. Notes and references. Select bibliography. Index.

Reviewed by Johanna Granville, Clemson University, Clemson, SC

Michael Urban's book, The Rebirth of Politics in Russia contains such a wealth of important ideas that a reviewer is challenged to summarize them adequately in a mere 750 words. This excellent book deals with contemporary Russian politics from 1989 to the present, seeking in particular "to explain the rebirth of politics amid the collapse of the USSR." It lends great insight into the question of why the "democratic experiment" in Russia has not been more successful thus far. The book starts with a model of "politics," in which the authors attempt to "articulate the concept across three spheres (state, political society, and civil society) and along two dimensions (organization and communication)." In this reviewer's opinion, this first chapter is rather dry and abstruse. The remaining chapters, however, are more concrete and interesting. Chapter two turns to the so-called "pre-political period," i.e. the period before the appearance of the Gorbachev-era "informals" and the formation (in 1990) of bona fide political parties. It describes the various strategies employed by the dissident movement---launched in about 1965 with the trial of Sinyavsky and Daniel--to gain political influence, These included stressing legality and using the Soviet Constitution as a weapon against the communist authorities; organizing demonstrations; appealing to the West regarding human rights violations; and documenting such abuses in publications such as the Chronicle of Current Events. The authors claim that the dissidents of the 1960s and 1970s had two major weaknesses. The first was their failure to address the Russian people directly, instead focusing primarily on the communist authorities. This hindered their ability to build grassroots support. The second shortcoming--which continues to inhibit the pro-reform political parties in Russia today--was the dissidents' "abstemious attitude" toward politics and unwillingness to cooperate with the party-state. These dissident intellectuals preferred to philosophize than to compromise their ideals in the nitty-gritty organizational work. Chapters three, four, and five examine Gorbachev's programs of perestroika and glasnost and the resulting mushrooming of informal organizations (neformaly). Here the authors point to an interesting paradox. Very few dissidents from the pre-political period participated in the informals, despite the fact that many of Gorbachev's ideas emerged from dissident "samizdat" publications or even official but liberal publications from the 1960s (like Novy Mir). This can be explained in part by the dissidents' traditional "abstemious attitude" toward politics mentioned above. In addition, as the authors note perceptively, after decades of basing their identity in opposition to the party-state system, the older dissidents either refused or hesitated to work within that system, in the officially sanctioned informals. Chapter six discusses the positive and negative aspects of the 1989 elections to the Congress of People's Deputies. Candidates fielded by the informal groups faced tremendous difficulties, from finding a public hall in which to hold the nominating sessions, making themselves heard above the jeers of communist hecklers, and even defending themselves from physical attacks. Moreover, no organizations independent of communist tutelage had the legal right to nominate candidates.(119) Urban and his colleagues also point out that the Congress of People's Deputies (CPD) could not be considered a real legislative body because it had no budgeting ("power of the purse") or lawmaking powers; all power resided in the CPSU and its executive agencies. Without a free market in the USSR there could be no genuine legislature. Moreover, given the barriers confronting the informals, most of the deputies elected to the CPD in 1989 were party apparatchiks. Ultimately the deputies owed their appointments to the Communist party, not to any constitutents in their home districts. On the positive side, however, the 1989 elections and the CPD sessions--televised live--played a vital role in mass politicization. Chapters seven, eight, and nine deal with the elections of 1990 and the formation of political parties at the close of the Soviet period. These elections, more meaningful than those the previous year, transformed the organizational dimension of Russian politics, remaking the internal constitution of the three principal forces then present on the political field (the CPSU, nationalists and neo-Stalinists, and democrats.) These political forces grew even stronger after the constitutional ban on political parties was lifted (March 1990), and the Law on the Press was passed, abolishing censorship (June 1990). Unfortunately, since the authorities had not removed the prohibition on parties until after the 1990 elections, "all the new parties were latecomers, arriving on the scene only after the ball had ended." (p. 201) With neither identifiable constituencies to represent nor upcoming elections to prepare for, the development of Russia's political parties was ingrown. The final chapters discuss the growth of "restoration" forces, which were determined to protect the CPSU against Russian nationalists, the "war of laws," and the failed coup d'etat of August 1991. Urban and his colleagues also observe Yeltsin's autocratic behavior after the failed coup and his missed opportunities which greatly hindered his economic reform program and impeded the growth of strong democratic parties. The October 1993 skirmish between the executive and legislative branches resulted from Yeltsin's failure to call for new elections immediately after the coup. In addition, the fractiousness of the democratic parties and groups in Russia today stem from Yeltsin's reluctance to support them. In 1990 Yeltsin suspended his membership in DemRossiya (a large amorphous bloc of democratic groups), following his election to the post of chairperson of Russia's Supreme Soviet. To make matters worse, in April, 1991--when DemRossiya was mounting protests and political strikes nationwide in hope of bringing down the communist order there and then--Yeltsin "pulled the rug from under DemRossiya by cutting a deal with Gorbachev" that commenced negotiations with eight other republics (the nine-plus-one process) to rescue the federal union and restore civil peace. (p.242) Thus Yeltsin has exhibited a tendency to detach himself from his supporters as soon as his immediate objectives had been reached. Urban and his colleague claim that Yeltsin's avoidance of responsibility to his base, along with the latter's reluctance to demand it, can be counted as a major missed opportunity to provide structure to Russian political society. It directly contributed to DemRossiya's disintegration, to the power struggle between the executive and legislature in communism's aftermath, and to the fall of the first Russian republic. In short this is an excellent book for anyone who wishes to understand the growth of Russian political society in the 1989-1997 period.

I work for a not-for-profit agency which was using a paradox 4.5 database to manage a complex, multilevel system of data collection and reporting. The woman who originally programmed our system was not around, and I literally learned to operate Paradox with THIS BOOK in one hand, while tapping on the keyboard with the other. Before I used this book, I didn't even know what a database was.

This is virtually the only manual I have ever used which I would recommend. I have had very bad luck with instruction manuals (for just about every computer product) before, most of them are only useful as doorstops. But if you want complete information presented step-by-step, very clearly, this is a great book.

Since using this book, I have actually begun to do some freelance work as a database programmer. I know it sounds corny, but it is TRUE...