552 SEER, 87, 3, JULY 2OO9 films to life.Chaptersfourand fiveare devotedto drawnanimation, and especiallyRein Raamat, one of Estonia'skeyanimators. Robinsonfinally discussesthe cartoons,but his dislikeforRaamat createsan unnecessary bias, turning his narrative into scathingattacks(pp. 70, 78-80, 151,185), condemning Raamat on hearsayrather thanfacts. Chapters sixand nineareveryshort and seemill-positioned inthevolume: thefirst, on modernart,wouldhavebeenbetter placedearlier; thelatter, on music, better integrated intothediscussions offilms. Chaptersevenisdevoted to PriitPärn and his caricature style, and written in an engagingmanner. Chapterseightand ten continuethe storyof the studios,introducing a newgeneration withRao Heimdmets and Kalju Kivi,Mati KüttandJanno Poldma.Chapterelevenis devotedto thetraining, whichis notavailablein Estonia.However,thislackofformal training characterized Estoniananimation ,whichwas taught 'on thejob' (p. 51)and therefore so different from the treadmill ofMoscow - a factthatRobinsonunderestimates. He discusses Pärn'spedagogicalactivity in Turkuand thenew generation of the 1990s: MaitLaas, Priit TenderandÜlo Pikkov. The final chapter explores thefuture ofEstoniananimation betweenartand commerce. Overall,theauthormakesnumerous unfounded oruntenable assumptions, someevenquiteentertaining, suchas thereference toEizenshtein's 'staircase victims' (p. 186)whentalking about theOdessa stepssequenceofBattleship PotemMn. Othererrors includethereference toFitilas Futile(p.vii),theincorrectly spelledname ofFedorKhitruk as Chitruk (p. viii);themisspellings of Soyultzmultfilm (pp. 18,56, 102),Kazhakstan(p. 61),deutchmarks (p. 89), Malevits (p.94),Ivan Shiskin (pp.136,138)and Konstantin Cherenko (p. 149). Other factualerrorscould be listed,such as the reference to sots-art as 'Sovietpop' (p. 95); or thereference to thefallofCommunism in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakiain 1989-90 - but not in East Germany (P-i49)? Overall,thisis an irritating bookto read:itscolloquialstyle, theauthorial bias thatbeamsfrom everysinglepage,theabsenceofsourcesand theindigestible biographical-historical sectionsare ultimately not counter-balanced by the enthusiasm and engagement thatRobinsonhas forcontemporary Estoniananimation. University ofBristol Birgit Beumers Akinsha, Konstantin and Kozlov, Grigorij; withSylviaHochfield.TheHoly Place:Architecture, Ideology and History in Russia.Yale University Press, New Haven, CT and London,2007.xii + 212pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index.£25.00. Grand publicbuildings tendtorepresent grandpublicstatements bythosein power,and fewbuildings aremoreimposing thanthecathedral ofChrist the SaviourinMoscow.In outline, thestory ofthemonument and itslocationis wellknown.In December1812AlexanderI announcedthata cathedralof reviews 553 Christ theSaviourwastobe built, on Sparrow Hills,inmemory ofNapoleon's expulsion from Russia.In 1815theyoungarchitect Karl Vitberg wascommissionedto designand overseetheproject.In October1817theTsar solemnly laidthecornerstone, yetworkneverprogressed muchbeyondthefoundations. In 1831NicholasI revived theproject, butina newlocation, hiring KonstantinTon to designa grandcathedralin theheartofthecapitalcity.Ton's cathedraltook halfa century to build and decorate,and was eventually consecrated onlyin 1883,as partofthecoronation ceremony ofAlexander III, orchestrated byPobedonostsev. Then: declineinthe1920s,demolition in 1933,Iofan'sprojectforthemassivePalace ofSoviets, which- likeVitberg's original cathedral gotnofurther thanitsfoundations; from i960 theworld's largest swimming pool;andfinally MayorLuzhkov'sconcrete replicaofTon's cathedral, erectedin lessthanthreeyearsin themid-1990s. ForAkinsha and Kozlovthelarger dramaisideological, and thesuccessive projects,whetherrealized or unrealized,reflect a successionof national or Utopianaspirations overthepast 200 years.So, besidesthestory ofconstruction , deconstruction, non-construction and re-construction, theytella storyof big ideas: the Masonic universalism and ecumenismof Vitberg's Solomonictemple;Ton's return to a 'Russian'architectural vocabulary as a projection ofNicholasI's official nationalism (as interpreted forthebuilding by the remarkably tenaciousPatriarch Filaret);the constructivist dreamof Tatlin'stowerfollowed by themid-Stalinist dreamofIofan'sgigantomanic palace; the late-Sovietpopulistconsumerism of the swimming pool; and finallythe murky1990s mixtureof civic ambition,imperialnostalgia, Orthodoxrevivalism and dubiousfinances. The narrative is brisk, lively, and notentirely impartial. As faithful intelligent )}, theauthors findithardto givea favourable or evenneutral accountof anybrandofofficial nationalism, whiletheypresent a sympathetically naive and idealistic Vitberg, an excitingly innovative Tatlin,a Iofanwhois eventuallymore of a dupe thana truebeliever;and theyeven contrive to turn Filaretinto a quasi-oppositional figure.Yet theyare honestenough to acknowledge thatintellectual tastehas not alwaysmatchedthetasteofthe masses:the realizedprojects,including both swimming pool and concrete new-old pastiche, havebeen genuinely popular. Thisisnarrative, notinvestigation. The authors telluswhathappenedand why.Their own interpretations are presented as fact,not hypothesis, and subjective sources- suchas Vitberg'sself-eulogization, via Herzen- are regurgitated uncritically iftheyfittherequiredschema.The authors are also prone to journalistic overstatement. Apparently, forexample,'A spectator walking aroundthecathedral was meantto experience [.. .] theevents ofthe war of 181 2' (p. 64). Really?Actually experience? Or (p. 58) theabandonment of the projectto translatethe Bible into Russian, ratherthan Church Slavonic,apparently meantthat'Russianpeasants[.. .] wereto be deprived oftheright to communicate directly withtheirGod'. Really?Could theyno longerpray?And had Russianpeasantsever habitually read theBiblein the local vernacular? Whenwe read that(p. 61) 'everyRussianunderstood with pridethatDavid was Alexanderand Solomon,Nicolas',we are reminded of grandSovietclaimstoknowthefeelings oftheentire Sovietpeople.Anddid 554 SEER> 87, 3...