Edited by Murray Feshbach. 100 pp., 304 maps. Moscow, Russia, PAIMS Publishing House; and Chevy Chase, Md., The Center for Post-Soviet Studies, 1995. $95. ISBN 5-87664-053-0.
In the Draft Constitution of the Russian Federation, preparedin 1992, Article 37(3) states, "Concealment by state officialsof facts and circumstances that present a threat to human lifeand health shall be amenable under the law." This reflects areality of Soviet life. Statistics had other functions besidesconveying information: they had an ideological and propagandisticrole in trumpeting the regime's achievements and concealingits failures, and they were considered potential sources ofstrategic intelligence to be concealed or manipulated so asnot to give aid and comfort to the enemy (the West). Sovietstatistics were thus notoriously unreliable . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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