SEER, Vol.87,M. 3, July2009 Reviews Marder,Stephen. A Supplementary Russian-English Dictionary (ASRED2). Second edition. SlavicaPublishers, Bloomington, IN, 2007.xxv+ 736pp. $44.95. The first editionofthisdictionary came out in 1992.A corrected reprint of 1994was followed by a Moscow mirror editionin 1995.For some readers, oftennativeRussianspecialists, thedictionary was something ofa shock,a shockforrecovery from whichtheMoscowmirror edition ismorethanample evidence.Peoplelikethepresent reviewer, somewhat takenaback(something regrettably reflected in his reviewof 1994: SEER, 72, 1, pp. 161-62),but nonetheless massively impressed, wenton to use the dictionary morethan regularly overthenext, well,fifteen years.His first-edition copymaywellstill be inpretty goodcondition, butthere canbe no doubtthatthissecondedition will,whilethefirst onewillforall sorts ofreasonscontinue tobe used,replace it. Time has passedand,within thattime,numerous dictionaries ofRussian have appeared,ofall sorts- in thefirst place,ASRED 1 anticipated them, openedmanyeyesinthesociety whoselanguageitwasrevealing, andinspired them.AndASRED 2, quitedifferent from them, providing invaluable, lexical and grammatical information and employing toolsto facilitate easyuse and accessibility, reappears, considerably expanded,toteachthemand takethem further. The first edition as producedbySlavicawasextremely durable;thissecond looksindestructible. It is a hardback, beautifully producedby thepublisher and,particularly, bytheauthor(though theauthorofa dictionary has to be a 'compiler', itseemsthatinthiscase we really aremuchclosertohavingan 'author').There are otherthings to do in life,alas, and theymustrender it put-downable, but it is mostcertainly all but unput-downable. And the wonderful listof such adjectivesin Russian on p. 79, under vnusabel'nyj, reinforces sucha conviction. Thereis a setofpreliminary pages:after theContents (no page number) comesthe Introduction to the Second Edition(ASRED 2), pp. i-iii,where theauthor buildsonASRED 1and further justifies it.Therefollows theIntroductionto theFirstEdition,pp. v-x, giving invaluableinformation on how besttousethedictionary and reminding us thatthedictionary's original guidingprinciple was 'to fillan alarming - and exasperating gap between whathasbeenrecorded andwhatitispossibletorecord', something inwhich it succeededmostnotably.On pp. xi-xxwe have a SelectedBibliography (Updated),withRussiansources(pp. xi-xviii)and Englishsources(pp. xviiixx ).We have thenAcknowledgments (SecondEdition), p. xxi,Acknowledgments (First Edition), p. xxii,ListofAbbreviations and Conventional Symbols (Updated),pp. xxiii-xxiv, and a RussianAlphabet, p. xxv.The bodyofthe dictionary is in thefollowing 736pages. Importantly, thereareextremely clearand fullentries: theheadwordsand other wordsandphrases within entries areall inboldcharacters and stressed; REVIEWS 527 morphological juncturebetweenstemand endingis marked;thereis exhaustivecross -referring to relatedentries; and an enormousamountofcultural information ofall sorts is given.One can open anypage to giveexamplesof thelast:autizm andAFE on p. 23,pénsija pò [vózrast]u on p. 83,kosój on p. 263, mitëk, mitrofánuska, andMít'kaonp. 323,ocepjátka onp. 406,Pjatèrocka onp. 506, slivát' on p. 579,urjük on p. 665, utjug on p. 669, and cetvërka on p. 706,each page opened withoutsearchingand additionalexamplesbeing citableon almost eachpage.Manyentries havesub-entries; so,forexample,ustrójstuo has eighty-four, spreadoverpp. 666-68, and úxohas twenty-nine, spreadover pp. 669-70 (and witha finequotationto illustrate otkúda rastút usi).The translations are also extremely apt,withfullexplanationand expansionas necessary. One couldgo on and on; itwouldseemto thisreviewer thattogo on and on hereisnotat all appropriate ornecessary - ASRED 2 is a labouroflove, an astonishing treasure troveoflinguistic, literary, political,cultural, social and scientific information aboutRussiaand theRussianlanguage.ASRED 1 was alreadyquitea phenomenon; ASRED 2 notonlyconfirms thatphenomenon but demonstrates, fifteen yearslater,thatit remainssupremely useful and needed,and a realjoy through whichtoflit and inwhichto dwell. StAndrews University Ian Press Sovik, MargretheB. Support, Resistance and Pragmatism: An Examination of Motivation inLanguage Policy inKharkiv, Ukraine. ActaUniversitatis Stockholmiensis, Stockholm SlavicStudies,34. Department ofSlavicLanguages andLiteratures, Stockholm University, Stockholm, 2007.356pp. Figures. Tables.Illustrations. Bibliographical references. Appendices. SEK 343.00 (paperback). The 'languagequestion'in Ukraine- specifically, the role and statusof Ukrainian and Russian- isone ofthoseheatedand controversial issuesthat repeatedly inserts itself intodomesticpoliticaldebates,especially, it seems, during electoral campaigns, whenpresidential candidates and political parties competing forvotesfindit to be a ratherusefultool formobilizing their supporters. Not infrequently, italso servesas a sourceofcontention between Kyivand Moscow.Much oftheproblemresidesin thefactthatin Ukraine languagepreference and usage largelyoverlapwiththe country's regional structure and conflicting politicalvalues,thereby setting the stageforthe 'languagequestion'to becomehighly politicized. The book underreview, whichwas written as a doctoraldissertation at Stockholm University, addressestheproblemin a veryspecific and, indeed, unorthodoxmanner.Instead of examiningpolicies and legal norms or analysing statistical data suchas thelanguageofinstruction in schoolsand universities or the resultsof country-wide sociologicalsurveys, whichhas beenthenormin thescholarly literature, theauthorfocuses on howthepredominantly Russian-speaking residents ofKharkiv - Ukraine's secondlargest...