696 Slavic Review 

matical Programming and Tolerances in Planning," Economic Computation and 
Economic Cybernetics Studies and Research [Bucharest], 1976, no. 1, pp. 3-14). 

This treatise offers an abstract framework to contain the diverse realities of the 
economic systems around us. The challenge now is to fill the intervening space, work-
ing up from empirical detail and down from strict theory, to build a tested body of 
understanding. Contributions to the effort may well appear in the new Journal of Com-
parative Economics whose editor, not surprisingly, is John Michael Montias. 

HOLLAND H U N T E R 

Haverford College 

T R E N D S IN T H E S O V I E T O I L A N D GAS I N D U S T R Y . By Robert W. Camp-
bell. A Resources for the Future Book. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hop-
kins University Press, 1976. xvi, 125 pp. Tables. Figures. $10.00. 

This compact, succinct little book is a useful companion to the author's Economics of 
Soviet Oil and Gas (1968). It admirably fulfills the stated intentions of updating the 
data base of the earlier work and reviewing the most important developments since 
1965. Separate chapters deal with Soviet energy policy, exploration, drilling, oil pro-
duction, oil transport, oil refining, the gas industry, the economic reform in oil and 
gas, and Soviet participation in world energy markets (as buyer and seller). In cogent 
summaries that bracket the more detailed discussion, Professor Campbell argues that 
Soviet oil and gas planners now face problems different from those of the 1950s and 
1960s, and that their success in dealing with these problems will determine both the 
level and structure of future Soviet energy development. As usual, careful scholarship 
routs glib generalizations—for example, the undue pessimism about a Soviet "energy 
crisis," and the undue optimism that the U S S R can bail the West out of its own energy 
crisis with massive energy exports. 

Professor Campbell attributes many of the problems Soviet energy planners face 
to difficulties in meeting technological challenges—in drilling, oil refining, pipeline 
construction and operation, and the production of both oil and gas. This line of argu-
ment is backed up by a wealth of technical detail. Insightful (if tantalizingly brief) 
discussions deal with refinery mixes and product quality, the utilization of natural 
gas, the export of crude oil versus refined products, and planning methods (especially 
the attempts to apply optimizing models). In view of the apparent space constraints, 
Soviet oil purchases in the Middle East receive overmuch attention, with perhaps the 
least satisfying results. (Arms sales and Comecon debt instruments are stressed, to the 
relative neglect of the desire to minimize transport costs, given fixed commitments to 
Communist allies—to the reviewer, the best explanation of those purchases.) Unfortu-
nate publication delays have left the data series two or three years out of date, in a 
situation subject to rapid change. 

Not to carp, however—this is a valuable book for serious students of Soviet 
energy policy and more general readers alike. 

A R T H U R W. W R I G H T 

Purdue University 

T H E C L I M A T E S O F T H E S O V I E T U N I O N . By Paul E. Lydolph. World Survey 
of Climatology, vol. 7. Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier Scientific Publishing 
Company, 1977. xii, 443 pp. Illus. Dfl. 200. $81.75. 

Dr. Lydolph has performed a valuable and long overdue service in compiling a com-
prehensive reference on climatic factors in the Soviet Union. His stated intent "is to 
present general climatic information that can be used as a basis for other studies which