Rossiia XV-XVIII stoletii. Sbornik nauchnykh statei. Iubileinoe izdanie. 70-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia professora R. G. Skrynnikova posviashchaetsiia by I. O. Tiumentsev (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 743 The second section, 'Scotland and Cultural Interaction with Eastern Europe',beginswith a wide-rangingsurveyby MarkCornwallof the Croatian connection, giving emphasis to the architect Robert Adam and the historian R. W. Seton-Watson. The latter personage, who was one of the founders of thejournal in which this reviewappears,is given furtherattentionby Thomas D. Marzik,who looks at his friendshipwith the Slovak FedorRuppeldt, and by AndrasD. Ban, who scrutinizesthe analysismade by 'ScotusViator' of the Hungarianproblem in Czechoslovakiabetween the two worldwars. Ian D. Thatcher opens the third section, 'Scotland and the Russian Revolution', with an analysisof the representationsmostly of Glasgow to be found during the First World War in the journal J'Nashe Slovo.The focus of attention then switches to the East Coast: William Kenefick considers the career of William Leslie and his view that 'Aberdeen was more red than Glasgow';MurrayFramelooks at Dundee and the flax industry,wondering if the absence of a 'Red Tay' to match 'Red Clydeside' was brought about by the local dependence on flax importsfromRussia. The fourthandfinalsectionisentitled'ScotlandandPolandintheTwentieth Century: A Relationship Forged through War'. Although this relationship began in medievaltimes,thereisno doubt thatit became closermore recently, as the considerable number of Scots of Polish descent attests. Possibly, the presence of 'The BlackWatch in Upper Silesia, I92I-1922' produced at least some Poles of Scottish descent, although Peter Lesniewskisuggeststhat those on dutyduringthe League of Nations plebiscitehad littlecontactwith Silesian Poles.AllanCarswellcharacterizestheexperienceofPolishsoldiersinScotland duringtheSecondWorldWarasone ofhope andstabilityagainstabackground of struggleand misery.Finally,PeterD. Stachuraarguesthatthisbackground did not change radicallyin the postwaryearswhen, 'ruthlesslystabbed in the back by so-called Allies when it mattered, they had little option but to get on with theirlivesasbesttheycould' (p. 287). This sadconclusion is a reminderthatnot allencountersbetween Scots and Slavshave been happy ones, especiallysince more of them seem to have been connected with war than with peace. Nevertheless, the collection as a whole reinforcesthe view that there is some specialaffinityhere, revealingitselfover the centuries in many different ways in a wide range of places. All the contributors deserve credit for eschewing what can on occasion become a sentimental self-indulgence to produce essays that are at once objective and scholarly,interestingand informative. Universiiy ofAberdeen PAUL DUKES Tiumentsev, I. 0. (ed.). RossiiaXV-XVIII stoletii.Sborniknauchnykh statei. Iubileinoe izdanie.70-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia professora R. G. Skrynnikova posviashchaetsiia. Izdatel'stvoVolgogradskogogosudarstvennogouniversiteta , Volgograd and St Petersburg, 2001. 289 pp. Notes. Tables. Documents . Priceunknown. THIS volume, compiled by twelve colleagues, students and 'students of students' to honour Ruslan Grigor'evich Skrynnikov on his seventieth 744 SEER, 8o, 4, 2002 birthday,will attractspecialistson the period indicatedfor severalcompelling reasons. The first is the editor's summary with bibliography of Professor Skrynnikov's quite remarkablecareer (pp. 5-I6, I7-27). 'To this day' Skrynnikovhimself cannot explain why, in I948, he suddenly abandoned his ambition to become a physicist and entered the history faculty of Leningrad StateUniversity(p.5), where,exceptfor theyears 1953-I960 spentat the nearby Herzen PedagogicalInstitute,he was to remain for the rest of his life. At any rate,while therehe completed his studiesunderD. S. Likhachev,B. A. Romanov, and S. N. Valk and later mentored no fewer than four future doctors of history, fourteen candidates thereof, innumerable researchers, teachers, archivists, and museum staffers,and authored some I85 scholarly works.The latterinclude 'morethan50 monographsandbooks'(monographs, editions, translations, textbooks, two dissertations) and 'over a hundred articles'published in leading scholarlyjournals (p. I4). Among his books the Russian editions of his biographies of Ivan IV the Terrible and of Boris Godunov sold about one million copies; the formeralso appeared in English, Polish, German, Chinese, and Japanese translations, and in a new, much expanded Russian edition in I996. Moreover, his growing reputation as an authority on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Russian history and his relative independence among Soviet historians resulted in invitations to lecture at other universitiesnot only in Russia and EasternEuropebut also in France,Britain,Italy, and Germany, and to publish in American as well as in European and Soviet journals. His editor suggests that this wider fame originated in his participation in the I970S in the debate over the Prince Kurbsky-IvanIV correspondencelaunched by EdwardKeenan, and that his voice was decisive in ending the debate in favour of the authenticity of the correspondence which Keenan had...