R.W. DAVIES is Emeritus Professor in the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Birmingham, of which he was previously Director. In the course of his research, he has paid many visits to Russia to study in Moscow and St Petersburg libraries and in the state and former party archives. His publications include The Development of the Soviet Budgetary System, Soviet History in the Gorbachev Revolution, Soviet History in the Yeltsin Era, The Socialist Offensive 1929-1930, The Soviet Collective Farm, 1929-1933. He is at present preparing, jointly with S G Wheatcroft, a study of the Soviet Famine of 1932-3 based on recently-released Russian and Ukranian archives. He collaborated with E H Carr on vols 9 and 10 of A History of Soviet Russia.