Haven’t written here anything for quite a while, although there have been quite a lot of news actually. The beginning of the year was rather messy (and, honestly speaking, a bit crazy), but nevertheless:
- The third Russian version of The Bibliography of Middle-earth is already at the publishing department of my institute and is to appear in print this summer. Several hundreds of new references have been added, among them both newly published works and some older ones not included into the previous version.
- The first English version of The Bibliography of Middle-earth is also at our publishing department and is to appear this summer. I hope it’ll be available for readers one way or another (at least electronically) despite the war.
- The Memoir Notes by General Andrei Volkov are at our publishing department, too, and are to appear in May (in Russian). The book, not published in Soviet time, is quite unusual from the viewpoint of genre because it contains both memoir chapters and diary entries by the author for 1942—first half of 1945. During the Second World War, Volkov was responsible for artillery supply, in 1939—early 1941 at the Leningrad Military District, and in 1941–45 at the Western Front (renamed into the 3rd Belorussian Front in 1944). His description of events is quite different from the majority of Soviet generals and marshals that commanded fronts and armies in battle. His relatives are neighbours of Olga Dernova, my colleague from the State Historical Public Library of Russia, who helped me to prepare The Bibliography of Middle-earth for publication. When she found out that I’m not only a Tolkien scholar, but also a historian of World War II, she proposed me to take part in editing Volkov’s book 😉
- And finally, a collection of articles and reviews on current anglophone historiography of World War II is to be published in September. I’m coediting it together with Igor Bogomolov (the head of my department). We decided the volume should cover not only the Soviet–German war, but also the other theatres of operations, as well as various aspects of the social history. The work is still in process, so follow the news 😉