Reviews 913 verbs of motion (usually called definite/determinate and indefinite/indeterminate). Only minimal attention is paid to stress, and the problem of word order is totally neglected. Model sentences too often read like word-for-word translations of English into Russian. It is not that sentences like Gde vy videli ego vcheraf do not exist in Russian, but rather that an excess of such models misleads the student into thinking this is the normal word order in that language. Despite these minor objections, the book has much to recommend it. Grammar explanations, though traditional, are clear and concise. The inclusion of an extensive body of literary readings adapted from Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Zoshchenko must be regarded as a positive asset. CLAYTON L. DAWSON University of Illinois, Urbana M O D E R N F I N N I S H P A I N T I N G A N D G R A P H I C A R T . By John Boulton Smith. New York and Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1970. 62 pp. $4.50. M O D E R N A R C H I T E C T U R E I N F I N L A N D . By Asko Sdokorpi. New York and Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1970. 64 pp. $4.50. John Boulton Smith asks the question whether or not Finnish modern painting and printmaking have an individual cultural identity, and proceeds expertly to trace the effects of Romanticism, Impressionism, Postimpressionism, A r t Nouveau, and E x - pressionism on Finnish painters who attempted to evoke their own national heritage. Painting is a young art in Finland. In a state of decline after the Reformation, it was not revived until the nineteenth century, when it was relearned from various Euro- pean models. Abstract art was not accepted until the 1950s, growing commonplace in the 1960s. The year 1809 saw Finland's severance from Sweden and its new guise as an independent grand duchy under Russian domination. As in other Nordic countries, nationalism grew, and Elias Lonnrot's publication of Finland's national epic, the Kalevala, occurred in 1835. The centers for the artistic training of Finnish artists in the nineteenth century were, successively, Stockholm, Dusseldorf, and in the 1880s, Paris. The first distinctively Finnish painting drew upon the Kalevala and used the sinuous style of A r t Nouveau. Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) was the most famous exponent of this form. The nationalist movement was greatly strengthened by Finland's final independence from Russia in 1917, and produced, once again, an interest in the depiction of folk themes. Edvard Munch's 1909 and 1911 exhibitions in Helsinki helped foster an interest in Expressionism. But the Finnish quality in Finnish painting is apparent in the content, not the style. The most frequently reiterated theme is a strong feeling for nature, both lyrical and melancholy. Mr. Smith's text is clear, direct, and sympathetic, and his choice of plates arouses interest in a little-known sphere of modern art. In contrast, Finland's architecture has a long-standing, unbroken tradition, and its modern architecture is world renowned. Asko Salokorpi traces the key aspects of modern Finnish architecture, which parallels European architecture in general, and discusses the concepts of rationalism, romanticism, internationalism, and nationalism. His presentation is terse, often brilliant, and he makes it clear why "Finnish archi- tecture often seems to be an art form rather than a way of building." The influence of Art Nouveau, Cubism, and Constructivism and the concept of functionalism are 914 Slavic Review made clear, and the reasons why Finnish architecture did not influence European architecture in general are given. He contrasts the axial symmetry and straight lines of early Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe with the Finnish penchant for asym- metry and sculptural masses—a transformation of functional ism. Originally founded on the use of industrial forms and production processes—emphasizing the utilitarian, the uniform, the anonymous, and the mass-produced—factionalism in actuality pro- duced expensive, elitist, isolated works of art. The well-known architecture of Alvar Aalto was influenced in 1927-28 by Gropius's Bauhaus building, which was a freely formed composition. But his 1930s elegant and daring "freeform" constructions were far from Bauhaus principles. Le Corbusier's "five-point plan" had only a limited following in Finland. In addition to the work of Aalto, the work of thirty-six other architects is evaluated, and the famed town-planning project of Tapiola is discussed. Continuously enlightening, Salokorpi's book has an excellent selection of plates and unusually informative plate notes. Both books are concise and intelligent, and Smith's book has the virtue of introducing the English-speaking reader to an almost unknown facet of modern art. The extremely small type is the only flaw in these pocket-sized volumes, making the reading unnecessarily strenuous. KARL LUNDE The William Paterson College of New Jersey OSTATNIE LATA DRUGIEJ RZECZYPOSPOLITEJ (1935-1939). By Hanna and Tadeusz Jedruszczak. Warsaw: Ksiazka i Wiedza, 1970. 423 pp. Professor Tadeusz Jgdruszczak is the director of the Institute of Military History in Warsaw. He is the author of two previous books, Polityka Polski w Sprawie Gornego Slqska, 1918-1922 (Warsaw, 1958), an excellent study of this complex problem, and Pilsudczycy bez Pilsudskiego (Warsaw, 1964). His wife, Dr. Hanna Jedruszczak, has published several articles on labor and wages in interwar Poland. We can therefore assume that hers was an important contribution to the book under review. The authors attempt to present an overall view of Poland in the years 1935-39. It is an interesting study and gives the reader a great deal of important information. It should be treated, however, as the authors themselves acknowledge, as only a tentative synthesis. The book is, moreover, directed both to the specialist and to the general reader. The authors admit that while the international situation and thus foreign policy were the dominant problems for Poland in these years, they could not always deal adequately with these subjects because of the unsatisfactory state of studies on the interwar period. This helps to explain why their discussion of these two problems constitutes the weakest part of the book. They could, however, have made more extensive use of some recent Polish publications, such as Henryk Batowski's Kryzys dyplomatycsny w Europie (jesieti 1938-wiosna 1939) (Warsaw, 1962), Marian Wojciechowski's Stosunki polsko-niemieckie, 1933-1938 (Poznan, 1965) (both cited in the bibliography), and Jerzy Kozenski's excellent study, Czechoslowacja w Polskiej polityce zagranicznej w latach 1932-1938 (Poznan, 1964) (not cited). There is much useful information on the economic, social, and political structure of the country. Here, however, too much emphasis is placed on the working class, which constituted only a small part of a population, 70 percent of which lived on the land. The Polish Communist Party, which receives a great deal of attention, had