Brought up in Russia but taken on visits to Scotland, Eugenie Fraser marvelously evokes a child's reactions to two totally different environments, sets of customs, and family backgrounds. With the events of 1914 to 1920—the war with Germany, the Revolution, the murder of the Tsar, and the withdrawal of the Allied Intervention in the north—came the disintegration of Russia and of family life. The stark realities of hunger, deprivation, and fear are sharply contrasted with the adventures of childhood. The reader shares the family's suspense and concern about the fates of its members and relives with Eugenie her final escape to Scotland.

    Petersburg and served in the Russian Army in the First World War. Invalided out, he traveled throughout Russia after the Revolution and saw a spell of service in the Red Army. He came back to St. Petersburg in 1921 and started to publish humorous satirical stories, which achieved considerable popularity. After the Second World War he was attacked by the Stalinist state and expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers. This marked the end of his literary career. This selection of short stories is confined to the 1920s, when Zoshchenko's talent found his best expression. Although written in a slangy familiar style, these stories are not essentially difficult for a student. An Introduction and Notes in English provide background and assistance in translation, and there is a useful Vocabulary.

    

    Despite her family's and the tsar's opposition, Maria was determined to join her husband thousands of miles from St. Petersburg. She was more than halfway there when the tsar's decree that she could never return from Siberia was read to her. The reunion occured in the depths of a silver mine, where she fell at her husband's feet and kissed his chains.Christine Sutherland's fascinating portrait of Maria and members of the Decembrist circle is based on the unpublished memoirs and diaries of the princess, which the Volkonsky family made available to her. The exile in Siberia lasted for almost thirty years, when an amnesty following the tsar's death freed them.In exile, Maria brought to Prince Volkonsky her love, gaiety, and artistic talents, together with a force of character, courage, and integrity which sustained them through the long years. A second son and a daughter were born to them in the detention camp of Chita in Transbaikalia. The Volkonskys were eventually allowed to settle in Irkutsk in a large, well-furnished wooden house. Maria's benevolent influence on the govenor of the province, in establishing local schools, in building the first theater in Siberia, and in promoting farm cooperatives, won her the love of the populace as "our Princess."

    

    Eating and drinking are viewed here as social activities which involves the economics of production, storage and distribution of food stuffs. These activities attract both social controls and state taxation; in this way the everyday process of eating and drinking is linked with the history of Russia. The dominance of grain in the diet throughout the period and the importance of salt, as implied in the title, are dealt with, as are the early Russian beer-drinking fraternities. The relatively late introduction of spirits, in the from of vodka, and it disastrous consequences in social terms are described. Tea and the samovar, also much more a latecomer than is generally realized, did little to diminish excessive drinking. Drinking, in any event, was by no means discourage by the state, since it was a major source of state income. The final section of the book looks at rural diets in the nineteenth century, when some variation and new items, such as the potato, became important. At the same time, peasants depended basically on the grain crop, as they had for thousands of years. Forced by txation to enter the market, afflicted by severe famines towards the end of the century, many peasants ate and drank no better as a result of the modernization of the county.