A publication of the two-volume Introduc? tion to Soviet Ethnography, edited by Stephen P. Dunn and Ethel D?nn,* is a welcome event, and a more significant one than might be sup? posed on the face of it, judging from the modesty of the task which the editors set themselves ? that is, to give readers in the West an approximate notion of the character and fate of ethnography in the Soviet Union and to acquaint them with carefully selected samples of the work of Soviet ethnographers in various fields. For the editors themselves, the present publication is an important and natural development in their fifteen-year effort to study and present the subject of Soviet ethnography. Preliminary work on a series of translations in the journal Soviet Anthropology and Archaeology, numerous meetings and consultations with Soviet col? leagues, investigations and publications of their own ? all this makes it easy to under? stand the accuracy of the translations, the exactitude and thoroughness of the accom? panying commentaries and footnotes, the very good representation, considering the limited size and relatively narrow purposes of the publication, of significant contributions by the most various, and in their own ways remarkable figures in Soviet descriptive-theo? retical ethnography. In the seven parts of the two-volume publi? cation, the reader will find the most essential information and illustrative material on the classical pre-Revolutionary tradition, massive and substantial publications on the ethnography of the peoples of the USSR (which, incidentally, are very aptly divided among the various geo? graphical areas), brilliant examples of folklore studies, a quite good sample of theoretical contributions on the problems with which Soviet ethnographers have been preoccupied during the past decade and on which animated discussions have taken place, and, finally, the necessary minimum of examples of Soviet ethnographic investigations outside the Soviet Union. All this material is perhaps sufficient to familiarize Western anthropologists with the parallel discipline in the USSR, which is almost unknown to them, although it by no means implies the overcoming of mutual isola? tion. This isolation is in a certain sense one? sided, for, contrary to the editors' opinion (see p. 39), which they share with many of their Western colleagues, Soviet ethnographers are much more completely conversant with Western anthropology than may be suspected from reading their works or even from private con? versations. The point is that although they are able to read, and do in fact read, all the litera? ture in their specialties published in the West, Soviet ethnographers almost never betray their substantial awareness of the scientific concepts ?Published by Highgate Road Social Science Research Station, Berkeley, California, 1974.