In bringing together this wealth of information on Russia's republics and regions, Orttung and his associates at the EastWest Institute have done the field a tremendous service. Spanning almost 700 pages, this weighty tome includes all of the basic information on each of Russia's subjects of the federation in one easily accessible volume. The fact that this is the only place much of this information can be accessed in English also makes it extremely useful as a teaching resource, given the limited number of students with adequate Russian-language skills.