Reviews 689 withstanding, dated in the light of research in this area pursued so successfully by Hans Koch, Reinhard Wittram, Pierre Pascal, Rudolf Jagoditsch, Serge Zenkovsky, James Cracraft, and Robert Crummey. The somewhat cavalier fashion in which she dismisses the profound impact of the writings of Johann Arndt and other German spiritualists and pietists on the thought of Saint Tikhon is no longer tenable after the findings of such authorities as Vasily Zenkovsky and Dmitri j Tschizewskij. On the other hand, her description of Saint Tikhon's youth—one filled with hardship, privation, and bitterness—and of the laborious course of his later career corroborates the results of the meticulous research in the life and social situation of the Russian clergy of the eighteenth century recently undertaken so brilliantly by Gregory L. Freeze in his pioneering study, The Russian Levites (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977). The lot of the much maligned, humble Russian parish priest and monk during the reigns of Anne, Elizabeth, and Catherine the Great was far from enviable or "privileged." Consequently, despite some flaws entailed by the times, the book can still be recommended as a knowledgeable and warm-hearted introduction to the inner, spiritual life of the Russian church during the period of its deepest humiliation, before the onset of all-out persecution in the wake of the Revolution of 1917. H E I N R I C H A. STAMMLER University of Kansas A BULGAKOV A N T H O L O G Y . By Sergius Bulgakov. Edited by James Pain and Nicolas Zernov. Introduction by James Pain. Memoir by Lev Zander. Philadel- phia: The Westminster Press, 1976. xxvi, 191 pp. $12.50. This anthology represents, as far as I can tell, the first substantial translated selection from Father Sergius Bulgakov's work. It is a useful book, in a limited way, but also a frustrating one in many respects. All of the selections are tantalizingly brief— in most cases, not because Bulgakov wrote them that way, but apparently by the will of the editors (although the principles for selection are nowhere made clear). The contents are divided into a number of categories: First, we are given several quite moving and interesting autobiographical fragments, dealing with Bulgakov's conversion (or perhaps reconversion) to Russian Orthodoxy in early middle life, his religious experiences before and after his conversion, his views on the constitution of the Russian Orthodox church, and, finally, his experience during surgery for cancer of the vocal chords. Next we have a number of excerpts from essays written during the first two decades of the century, including Bulgakov's contribution to the famous symposium Vekhi. The first of these represents what is usually called his "Marxist period," although, based on the evidence, this would seem to be a misnomer: the essay, "Economic Ideals," which predates his full conversion—according to his reports—by six or seven years, is written from an explicitly Christian (though not specifically Orthodox; perhaps rather Tolstoyan) perspective. Other essays in this series deal with Dostoevsky, Vladimir Solovyov [sic], Pablo Picasso, the character of Protes- tantism (as a "professorial religion"), and Karl Marx as a religious type (Bulgakov contends that militant atheism is the central element of Marx's doctrine). The second half of the collection consists of doctrinal and theological works written in the 1920s and 1930s, including a number of sermons—one in particular on the social doctrine of modern Russian Orthodoxy which was preached to an American audience in 1934. This final section is the least interesting, at least to someone who, like this reviewer, has no particular respect for the Russian Orthodox church as an institution and no particular interest in its theology. This is a pity, because Father Bulgakov is a figure of some human interest; his career represents the triumph of an 690 Slavic Review extremely strong religious temperament over external circumstances, social pressures, and even, to some extent, intellectual conviction. In his autobiographical fragments, he points out that for a long time he was held back from full conversion and then from taking holy orders by the fact that these things were simply "not done" in his circle, and by his abhorrence of tsarism, and that it was only the disestablishment of the Russian Orthodox church by the October Revolution which finally removed all obstacles. This situation has its ironic aspect, in view of the present partial reestab- lishment of the Orthodox church and also the unmistakable signs of an Orthodox revival among the Soviet intelligentsia. Perhaps it is unfair to fault the editors for not having put together a different book, but I think that it would have been better to include some of Bulgakov's detailed philosophical critique of Marxism, mentioned by Lev Zander in the memoir prefixed to the collection, rather than the heavily devotional material of the third section. Bulgakov's theological writings, as represented here, do not come to grips at all with the major social and political problems facing the Russian Orthodox church in the period in question, and, for this reason, are of no particular value to outsiders, although the sermon preached in the United States represents a partial exception. In brief, the verdict must be: "better than nothing, but not nearly as good as it could have been." S T E P H E N P. D U N N Highgate Road Social Science Research Station, Berkeley P U B L I C O P I N I O N I N E U R O P E A N S O C I A L I S T S Y S T E M S . By Walter D. Connor and Zvi Y. Gitelman, with Adaline Hussczo and Robert Blumstock. New York and London: Praeger Publishers, 1977. x, 197 pp. Tables. This work is an effort to broaden the study of Communist systems by analyzing the ways in which the existing social structures modify, constrain, and even affect the policies of the ruling regimes. While the authors recognize that Communist states attempt to direct the formation of public opinion, they are concerned in this work with the ways in which public opinion, once formed and legitimized, proceeds to limit to some degree the actions of the regime. Since the polling of public opinion is an essential step in the legitimation process of socialist states, most of the space in the book is devoted to the nature and content of socialist opinion polling in particular, and socialist survey research in general. Since for all practical purposes current socialist sociology is little else but survey research of one kind or another, it would have been possible to name the book "Sociology in European Socialist Systems." The book consists of six chapters. Gitelman and Connor provide the opening and closing chapters in which they discuss the data from all European socialist countries. The four intervening chapters examine in greater detail the state and impact of opinion polling in four countries: Huszczo's chapter on Poland, Gitelman's on Czechoslovakia, Connor's on the Soviet Union, and Blumstock's on Hungary. The omission of Rumania and Bulgaria was prompted by their relative underdevelopment, and the reason for excluding Yugoslavia was its tenuous connection with the Soviet bloc. The chapters dealing with individual countries contain a thorough discussion of the historical development of opinion polling in each country, an outline of repre- sentative samples of some of the most important polls and their results, a review of the major problems encountered by pollsters, and finally a description of the complex role played by the party in all of these activities. The major conclusion reached by all authors is that opinion polling still remains a relatively undeveloped aspect of socialist states and much of what is learned remains confidential, to be used only by the regime. In Connor's words, "while the regimes are more interested now in public opinion than in the past, they are no more ready now than before to