Books that cannot be accommodated in our book review section but that are worthy of special attention are listed here with their tables of contents.
O'Connor, Kevin C., The House of Hemp and Butter: A History of Old Riga. NIU series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Ithaca: Northern Illinois University Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2019. xv, 325 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $39.95, hard bound.
1. Genesis: Riga before Riga. 2. Watering the Nations: Riga and the Northern crusades. 3. Free Air in the Hanse City. 4. Master of Riga: The Archbishop, the Order, and the Rath. 5. Old Knights and New Teachings: The Reformation in Riga. 6. Upheavals: The Livonian War and the Polish Interlude. 7. Star City: The Swedish Century. 8. “This Accursed place”: The Great Northern War.
Pennington, James H., Friedman, Victor A., and Grenoble, Lenore A., And Thus You Are Everywhere Honored: Studies Dedicated to Brian D. Joseph. Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2019. xxxv, 428 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Figures. Tables. Maps. $44.95, paper.
Victor A. Friedman, Preface. Publications by Brian D. Joseph. James Joshua Pennington, Introduction. Jamie Abbott and Ioanna Sitaridou, How Contact with Greek Exacerbated the Rise of the Definite Article in Bulgarian. Ronelle Alexander, Tracking New Elements in Bulgarian Dialects. Bojan Belić, The Synchrony of the Serbian Infinitive: A Syntactic Perspective. Matthew C. Curtis, The Synchrony and Diachrony of Albanian nuk guxon “must not.” Andrew Dombrowski, Laterals and Fricatives in the Albanian-Slavic Contact Zone: Microscale Phenomena with Macroscale Ramifications. Donald L. Dyer, “Doubling down”: What More the Internet Can Tell Us about Bulgarian Reduplication. Grace E. Fielder, A Constellation of Greek Adversative Connectives? Victor A. Friedman, Double Determination in Colloquial Macedonian: Evidence from the 2015 Bombi. Luke Gorton and Tanya Ivanova-Sullivan, The Linguistic and Cultural History of Wine in Slavic. Marc L. Greenberg, Notes on a New Dialectology of Montenegrin. Lenore A. Grenoble, Contact With and Without Shift: The Example of nado. Christina E. Kramer, Anglicisms in Colloquial Macedonian: What the Bombi Tell Us. John Leafgren, The Use of Passive Voice Constructions in Bulgarian. Olga M. Mladenova, Balkan Chiaroscuro: Bulgarian osenja, osenjavam. Spiros A. Moschonas, Parallel Monolingualisms in W. Thrace. Motoki Nomachi and Wayles Browne, Newly Recognized Old Languages: Ausbau Languages and Their Changes after the Disintegration of Yugoslavia. Julia Porter, Papke Sanskrit Preverbs in Combination. Panayiotis A. Pappas, Stigmatized Dialectal Features in the Greek of Greek-Canadians. James Joshua Pennington, What Controversy? Word-final Nasal Delabialization in Čakavian and its Repercussions for Lexical Diffusion Theory. Tom Priestly, From Pancakes to Pig-troughs: Notes on Forty-odd Years of Fieldwork in a Small Alpine Village. Joseph Schallert, Adversative Connectives in the Kulakia and Konikovo Gospels with Respect to their Greek Source Texts (part one). Andrea D. Sims, When the Default Is Exceptional: Word Stress in Modern Greek Nouns. Anastasia Smirnova, Evidence in Evidentials. Andrey N. Sobolev, Albanian in Contact with Slavic. Cynthia M. Vakareliyska, English-Ioanblend [N[N]]s and Related Constructions in Croatian.
Torbakov, Igor, After Empire: Nationalist Imagination and Symbolic Politics in Russia and Eurasia in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century. Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, vol. 191. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2018. 347 pp. Notes. $40.00, paper.
Foreword by Serhii Plokhy. Introduction: Debating Russian Nationalism and Empire. Acknowledgements. I. The Vision of Eurasia. 1. Becoming Eurasian: The Intellectual Odyssey of Georgii Vladimirovich Vernadsky.2. From the other Shore: Reflections of Russian Émigré Thinkers on Soviet Nationality Policies, 1920s–1930s. 3. Defining the “True” Nationalism: Russian Ethnic Nationalists versus Eurasianists. 4. “Middle Continent” or “Island Russia”: Eurasianist Legacy and Vadim Tsymbursky's Revisionist Geopolitics. Neo-Ottomanism versus Neo-Eurasianism?: Nationalism and Symbolic Geography in Postimperial Turkey and Russia. II. Russia and Ukraine: Histoire Croisée. 6. “This is a Strife of Slavs among Themselves”: Understanding Russian-Ukrainian Relations as a Conflict of Contested Identities. 7. Ukraine and Russia: Entangled Histories, Contested Identities, and a War of Narratives. 8. Symbolic Geographies of Empire: The Ukraine Factor in Russia-Europe Relations. III. Politics of History. 9. Celebrating Red October: A Story of the Ten Anniversaries of the Russian Revolution, 1927–2017. 10. Divisive Historical Memories: Russian and Eastern Europe. 11. The Russian Orthodox Church and Contestations over History in Contemporary Russia.
Waterlow, Jonathan, It's Only a Joke, Comrade! Humour, Trust, and Everyday Life Under Stalin. Oxford: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018. xxi, 285 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. $20.00, paper.
Introduction. Part 1: Taking Liberties. 1. Kirov's Carnival, Stalin's Cult. 2. Plans and Punchlines: “The anekdoty always Saved Us.” 3. Speaking More than Bolshevik: Crosshatching and Codebreaking. Part 2: Joking Dangerously. 4. Who's Laughing Now? Persecution and Prosecution. Part 3: Alone Together. 5. Beyond Resistance: The Psychology of Joke-Telling. 6. In On the Joke: Humour, Trust, and Sociability.
Panaite, Viorel, Ottoman Law of War and Peace: The Ottoman Empire and its Tribute-Payers From the North of the Danube, 2nd ed.Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2019. xxii, 470 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. Illustrations. Figures. $179.00, hard bound.
Part 1: Ottoman Law of War and Peace. 1. Islamic Tradition and the Ottoman Law of War and Peace. Part 2: The Danube as a Gazi River. 2. The Ottoman Ideology of Holy War. 3. Ottoman Holy War to the North of the Danube. Part 3: Submission and Conquest. 4. The Islamic Ottoman Law of Peace. 5. Obeying Ottoman Sultans in Southeastern Europe: a Chronological Survey. 6. From Allegiance to Conquest: Terminology, Meanings, Myths. Part 4: Covenants and Customs. 7. Ottoman Peace Agreements. 8. Oaths as a Guarantee of Fidelity. 9. Pacta Sunt Servanda and Tributary Status. 10. Customary Practices. Part 5: Tribute Payers and Protected Peoples. 11. Sultans and Voivodes. 12. Voivodes as Tribute-Payers. 13. Reʿayas and Protected Peoples. 14.
Tributary-Protected Principalities. Conclusion.
Langdon, Kate C. and Tsismaneanu, Vladimir, Putin's Totalitarian Democracy: Ideology, Myth, and Violence in the Twenty-First Century. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan USA, 2020. xi, 248 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $44.99, hard bound.
1: Recentering Putinism. Debunking the “Putin Phenomenon” and Recentering Putinism. Challenges to Putinism and the Survival of Historical Trends. 2: The Inheritance of an Autocratic Legend. The Basis of Tsarist Rule: Absolute Power in Exchange for Border Protection. Leninism Continues the Autocratic Legacy. The Ghost of Autocracy Haunts Modern Russia. 3: Enter “the Hero.” The Dresden Connection. After the Soviet Fall. Apartment Bombings and the Need for a National Savior. War as a Distracting and Mobilizing Force. Recognizing the Need for the People's Approval. Shaking the Unshakeable: Crises of the Economy and Legitimacy. 4: The Intellectual Origins of Putinism. What Is Ideology? Ideology and Blurring: The Progression into Totalitarianism. Intellectual Origins of Putinism and Beyond. Putin the Opportunist, or Putin the Believer? 5: Putinism as a Culture in the Making. The Security Imaginary: A Domestic Tool for Defining the Russian National Identity. Nostalgia for the Soviet Paradise. A One-Sided State of Perpetual War. Russia as a Victim. Rewriting History Around Russian Exceptionalism. Russia as the Superior Culture. Biopolitics and Racism: Self-Other Distinctions and Identity. Putinism and the Specter of Homo Sovieticus. 6: Russian Nationalism in Education, the Media, and Religion. Ideology and Youth Education in Russia. Ideology and the Media in Russia. Ideology and Religion in Russia. How Individuals Reproduce the Kremlin's Ideology. 7: Russian Foreign Policy: Freedom for Whom, to Do What? Putin's Foreign Policy, the “Near Abroad,” and Beyond. The Case of Ukraine and Expanding Biopolitics. The Case of Syria and Exaggerating Russia's Role in Global Anti-Terrorism. Foreign Policy and the Internal Policing of the Enemy. 8: The New Dark Times.
Bailey, Scott, In the “Wild Countries” of Central Asia: Ethnography, Science, and Empire in Imperial Russia. Washington: Academica Press, 2019. xiv, 284 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. Figures. $139.95, hard bound.
1. Connecting Science and Colonialism/Imperialism. 2. Mobility as a Tool of Imperial States and the Russian Case. 3. Cross-cultural Encounters and the Transformation of Central Asian Nationalism. 4. The Imperial Gaze: Petr Semonov as Prototype of Eurasian Scholar-traveler. 5. Nikolai Przheval΄skii and Extension of Russian-Central Asian space. 6. Russia in the North Pacific. 7. The Scaling of Colonial Activity. 8. Conclusion: Russia's Central Eurasian Expeditions in World Historical Context.
Tretyakov, Sergei, I Want a Baby and Other Plays. Trans. Leach, Robert and Holland, Stephen. London: Glagoslav Publications, 2019. 436 pp. Photographs. €28.85, hard bound. €24.99, paper. €9.95, e-book.
The World Upside Down (Zemlya dybom). A Wise Man (Mudrets). Are You Listening, Moscow?! (Slyshish΄, Moskva?!) Gas Masks (Protivogazy). Roar, China! (Rychi, Kitai!). I Want a Baby (Khochu rebënka). I Want a Baby (Khochu rebënka).
Hansen, Julie, Evans-Romaine, Karen, Eagle, Herbert, Living Through Literature: Essays in Memory of Omry Ronen. Uppsala Studies on Eastern Europe, 8. Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2019. 277 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Photographs. Paper.
Vyacheslav V. Ivanov, Living through Literature: In Memory of Omry Ronen. Susanne Fusso, Mikhail Katkov and Lev Tolstoy: Anna Karenina against the Russian Herald. Michael Wachtel, Vladislav Khodasevich as Innovator. Karen Evans-Romaine, Pasternak, Heine, and the Cult of the Musician. Sara Feldman, The Shekhinah's Empty Nest: Tracing the Imagery of Apostasy in H.N. Bialik. Stephanie Sandler, Mandelstam Among Contemporary Poets: Zhdanov, Eremin, Glazova. Timothy D. Sergay, Jakobson, Whorf, and the Fractal Vision of Language. Irena Ronen, Nabokov's First English-Language Novel in the Context of the Anglo-American Prose of His Contemporaries. Nancy Pollak, Kinbote's Remorse. Julie Hansen, The Pleasure of Translingual Punning: Homage to Nabokov in Olga Grushin's The Dream Life of Sukhanov. Kelly E. Miller, “Lost in Love”: Reading a Literary Map of Los Angeles in Light of the Russian Silver Age. Reminiscences: Omry Ronen as Teacher. Paula Powell Sapienza, Omry Ronen – Poem.
Lipovetsky, Mark, ed., 21 Russian Short Prose from an Odd Century. Cultural Syllabus. Brookline: Academic Studies Press, 2019. xiii, 318 pp. Photographs. $109.00, hard bound. $26.95, paper.
Nikolai Baitov, Solovyov's trick; Silentium, trans. Maya Vinokour. Evgeny Shklovsky, The Street, trans. Jason Cieply. Vladimir Sorokin, Smirnov, trans. Maya Vinokour. Nikolai Kononov, Evgenia's Genius, trans. Simon Schuchat. Leonid Kostyukov, Verkhovsky and Son, trans. Maya Vinokour. Sergei Soloukh, A search, trans. Margarita Vaysman and Angus Balkham. Margarita Khemlin, Shady Business, trans. Maya Vinokour. Elena Dolgopyat, The Victim, trans. Jason Cieply. Kirill Kobrin, Amadeus, trans. Veronika Lakotová. Pavel Peppershtein, Tongue, trans. Bradley Gorski. Aleksandr Ilichevsky, The Sparrow, trans. Bradley Gorski. Stanislav Lvovsky, Roaming, trans. Bradley Gorski. Valery Votrin, Alkonost, trans. Maya Vinokour. Linor Goralik, A Little Stick; 1:38 a.m.; No Such Thing; Come On, It's Funny; The Foundling; We Can't Even Imagine Heights Like; That Cyst, trans. Maya Vinokour. Aleksey Tsvetkov Jr., Priceart, trans. Sofya Khagi. Lara Vapnyar, Salad Olivier. Polina Barskova, Reaper of Leaves, trans. Catherine Ciepiela. Arkady Babchenko, Argun, trans. Nicholas Allen. Denis Osokin, Ludo Logar, or Duck Throat; The New Shoes, trans. Simon Schuchat. Maria Boteva, Where the Truth Is, trans. by Jason Cieply. Marianna Geide, Ivan Grigoriev, trans. Simon Schuchat.
