Alongside the republic's political history, there is a
description of the major self-governed, or autonomous,
regions within each republic. Twentieth-century Com-
munist Party leadership is identified, as are the cir-
cumstances leading to declarations of sovereignty in
the recent period.

The second section of each chapter narrative ex-
amines issues currently being faced by each newly
independent state. This section builds on the prior nar-
rative, but is structured in such a way as to allow read-
ers to move directly to the consideration of contempo-
rary issues. It examines a variety of topics, such as
political and ethnic conflict, economic restructuring,
environmental/ecological affairs, and cultural and in-
tellectual developments. The contemporary issues sec-
tion for each chapter has been completely rewritten
for this second edition, reflecting the rapid changes
underway in Eurasia.

Glossary and Index A glossary is provided at the end
of the volume to explain terms that may be unfamiliar.
A comprehensive index enables a reader to locate all
references to a topic and is especially useful for find-
ing information on issues that have affected several
regions or states.

Spellings We have incorporated all of the major name
changes of the post-Soviet period (e.g., St. Petersburg,
not Leningrad; Nizhnii Novogorod, not Gorky; Semey,
not Semipalatinsk). Often we have provided the old
name in parentheses. Many of the cities of the
non-Russian republics now bear a spelling different
from that used during the Soviet period (Qilqon, not
Kokand; Almaty, not Alma-Ata). Such spelling changes
reflect abandonment of Russified place names in non-
Russian areas. We have tried to incorporate these spell-
ing changes for all non-Russian names, using the
transliteration employed by the National Geographic
Society in its standardized map, "Russia and the Newly
Independent Nations of the Former Soviet Union"
( 1993). In some cases the more familiar Russian trans-
literation is offered in parentheses. For Russian place
names, we have followed a modified Library of Con-
gress transliteration system, with the exception of cit-
ies commonly known by Anglicized spellings (e.g.,
Moscow).

As in the first edition, it is a pleasure to acknowledge
the help of others in the preparation of this revised
handbook. The second edition has benefitted greatly
from the professional editorial expertise of Elizabeth
Welsh. Dmitry Tartakovsky, a graduate assistant in the
Arizona State University History Department, has con-
tributed significantly to the revision of the statistical
profile sections. His work adds to that of Jonathan
Haring and Dylan Zoller, acknowledged in the first
edition. We continue to benefit from the advice of other
colleagues who have been generous in their evalua-
tion of separate sections of the volume.

Sandra L. Batalden
Stephen K. Batalden
Skopje, Macedonia
February 1997

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