The “Minsk Phenomenon:” demographic development in the Republic of Belarus

This paper returns to a topic the author dealt with in a more basic form some years ago. But it also makes an attempt to conceptualize the development of independent Belarus through its population migration to urban centers and especially its capital city, a development that dates exclusively from the post-1945 period, but that paradoxically has prevented this republic from experiencing the sort of modernization processes evident elsewhere in Europe. It takes as its starting point the pioneering work by the German historian Thomas Bohn titled The Minsk Phenomenon and develops it further by linking it to demographic issues, current health concerns, and problems in industrial development.     

Ethnic Issues in the Famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine

The article discusses recent historiography on the Ukrainian famine of 1933, arguing that whereas there is today a consensus in Ukraine that it constituted an act of genocide by Stalin's government against Ukrainians, no such agreement exists in the West. Further, Western works, while they may offer valuable insights and their conclusions notwithstanding, have tended to neglect the national issue altogether. The article demonstrates that national questions remained uppermost in the discussions of party officials about the failure of the 1932 harvest in Ukraine and argues that a more definitive study of the famine would be enhanced by discussion of the disparate views and further use of archival evidence.     

Chernobyl': Observations on the Fifth Anniversary

A Canadian Sovietologist with extensive research experience relating to the accident at the Chernobyl' nuclear power plant in 1986 surveys some of its major consequences in light of new information on the fifth anniversary of the disaster in 1991. The author outlines and analyzes varying interpretations of the cause of the accident (operator error vs. design flaw), the extent and density of the radiation release, and the severity of its impact on public health in contaminated areas. Appropriately noted are the jurisdictional disputes over the clean-up and other remedial efforts-most rooted in the current political crisis in the Soviet Union. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P20, Q20, Q40.     

Stepan Bandera: The resurrection of a Ukrainian national hero

This article discusses the reinterpretations of the career of Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera and his place in contemporary Ukraine by examining scholarly debates in academic books and articles, school textbooks and media sources from the late 1980s to the present. The article seeks to elucidate the place of Bandera in modern Ukrainian history and illustrates his metamorphosis from arch-villain and alleged traitor in Soviet works to a modern and mythical national hero with a firm place in the historical narrative of twentieth century Ukraine.     

Reviews

Curtis Keeble, Britain and the Soviet Union, 1917–89. London: Macmillan, 1990, xiv+387 pp., £40.00.

Baruch Hazan, Gorbachev's Gamble: The 19th All‐Union Party Conference. Boulder, San Francisco, and London: Westview Press, 1990, 485 pp., $42.50.

Martin Crouch, Revolution and Evolution: Gorbachev and Soviet Politics. New York, London: Philip Allan, 1989, x+245 pp., £24.50 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Adam Westoby, The Evolution of Communism. Oxford: Polity Press, 1989, vii+333 pp., £29.50 h/b, £9.95 p/b.

Mikael Sandberg, Learning from Capitalists. A Study of Soviet Assimilation of Western Technology. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1989, xi+264 pp., SEK 148.00 p/b.

Stephen Fortescue, Science Policy in the Soviet Union. London: Routledge, 1990, ix+230 pp., £35.00.

Zhores Medvedev, The Legacy of Chernobyl. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990, 344 pp., £19.95.

Jonathon R. Adelman & Christiann Lea Gibson, eds., Contemporary Soviet Military Affairs: The Legacy of World War II. London: Unwin Hyman, 1989, viii+193 pp., $39.95.

Ellen Brun & Jacques Hersch, Soviet‐Third World Relations in a Capitalist World: The Political Economy of Broken Promises. London & Basingstoke, Macmillan Press (in association with the Danish International Development Agency, Danida), 1990, x+335 pp., £35.00.

Douglas A. Macgregor, The Soviet‐East German Military Alliance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, xii+178 pp., £25.00 ($34.50).

Stanislaw Gomulka, Yong‐Chool Ha, Cae‐One Kim, eds., Economic Reforms in the Socialist World. Basingstoke & London: Macmillan, 1989, x+244 pp., £35.00.

Jacques Sapir, Les fluctuations économiques en URSS 1941–1985. Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1989, 239 pp., 200 Francs.

Eugene Shirley, Jr. & Michael Rowe, eds., Candle in the Wind: Religion in the Soviet Union. Lanham, MD: Ethics and Public Policy Center Publishers, 1989, xxvii+356 pp., $39.50 h/b., $21.95 p/b.

Nikki R. Keddie & Mark J. Gasiorowski eds., Neither East Nor West: Iran, the USSR, and the USA. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990, ix+295 pp., £30.00, h b., £9.95 p b.

R. Craig Nation, War on War: Lenin, the Zimmerwald Left and the Origins of Communist Internationalism. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 1990, xiv+313 pp., £42.25.