This bibliography mirrors every major and minor facet of Soviet thinking on Latin America from 1917 to 1964. Rarely is it possible to make such an inclusive claim for any bibliography. But in this case, except for newspaper articles, practically every morsel of Russian language material on Latin America published in the USSR is listed in topical and geographical arrangement.
Volume I contains a preface by Howard F. Cline, director of the Hispanic Foundation, Library of Congress, while both volumes bear introductions by Sergius Yakobson, chief of the Slavic and Central European division, Library of Congress. Each volume contains twenty-five identically organized chapters, editorial notes, appendices, and author and subject indices. Volume I includes 3,831 entries, Volume II 4,857. Approximately three-quarters of the materials listed in each volume fall into the following seven broad categories: politics and government, languages and literatures, foreign relations, travel, society and social conditions, international economic relations, and economic conditions and policies. The largest section by far in both volumes is the section on politics and government with 995 items in Volume I and 1,259 in Volume II.
A chart depicting annual production of Soviet writings on Latin America indicates that the volume of such materials has grown from three titles in 1918 to 4,290 during 1960-64. After examining the contents of most of the social science and history materials listed in the bibliography, this reviewer urgently calls upon Slavic and Latin American scholars in the West to explore these increasingly sophisticated and challenging interpretations of the problems of Latin America. Soviet scholars employing Marxist-Leninist criteria in their studies of developing regions have ardently dedicated themselves to the study of Latin America. They have published at least ten times more on this subject than on all the problems of Africa.
The bibliography indicates that Soviet writers have devoted least attention to Latin American sociological, psychological, and anthropological problems, critiques of philosophy, fine arts, music, the press, science, and medicine. The apparent lack of interest in these topics may be due to the fact that Soviet scholars have undertaken extremely few field studies in Latin America. Another possible explanation is scholarly response to political dictates in the USSR, particularly since 1956. At the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, scholars were informed they must examine problems related to national liberation movements in developing countries of the world. After that congress a flood of social science and historical literature poured from the presses until very recently when a slowdown in publishing on Latin America has become evident. The recently appointed Soviet ambassador to Brazil, S. S. Mikhailov, is reported to have said: “Until late 1965, Soviet writing on Latin America was approached in a disorganized fashion; it will now be pursued on a more organized basis.” This may mean that forthcoming writings will reflect changes of emphasis in research patterns. For the present, however, students of Latin American studies will find a foundation for comparative analysis of Soviet and non-Soviet views of contemporary problems of Latin America in this bibliography compiled by Leo Okinshevich.
