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Nations—Nationalities—Peoples. A Study of the Nationalities Policy of the Communist Party in Soviet Moldavia. By Michael Bruchis. East European Monographs, no. 165. Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 1984. iv, 230 pp. $28.00. Distributed by Columbia University Press, N.Y

Peter Juviler concludes in his survey of Soviet demographic policy. Infant mortality is still higher in rural than in urban areas, but "recent increases in the mortality of infants and adults originated primarily in urban areas." Environmental pollution, and in particular low-level atomic radiation, may contribute significantly to Soviet health problems, but thus far "countermeasures against environmental damage to health and rising mortality have been minimal." Urban families enjoy advantages over their rural counterparts, of course, and educational opportunity ranks high among those advantages. City schools may vary substantially, however, despite a basically uniform curriculum. Richard Dobson attributes this partly to the peculiar policy of shefstvo (sponsorship), whereby enterprises and organizations (farms, department stores, and universities, for example) sponsor and equip individual schools, organize their vocational training, and arrange their extracurricular activities. Soviet youths face less uncertainty in finding employment than do young Americans, but Dobson cites Soviet data indicating that even in engineering, medical, and pedagogical institutes many students seem little interested in their chosen fields. Inadequate vocational training programs in the schools are blamed for the fact that "so many young people choose an occupation haphazardly, become disillusioned, and change jobs, thus contributing to the excessively high rate of turnover in many branches of the economy." While some of the authors review material and reinforce conclusions that have appeared elsewhere, The Contemporary Soviet City assembles a wide variety of interesting American research on Soviet urban life. Some of the essays highlight objectives of current Soviet urban research as well. Several essays are well suited for use as supplementary reading in courses on Soviet history or politics. Particularly entertaining is Zvi Gitelman's analysis, based on a poll of recent emigres, of how Soviet citizens perceive, cope with, and circumvent various bureaucracies.