The Soviet-Afghan war comes up only once in RUSSIAN GOTHIC (Rare Bird Books, 122 pp., $25), a slim novel by the Belarus-born Aleksandr Skorobogatov that first appeared in 1991 and has just been ...

These meticulously researched books illuminate the history of two storied Russian military outfits. Bukkvoll, a Norwegian defense analyst, uses a vast range of sources to put together a comprehensive ...

THE ROMANOVS—William Gerhardi—Putnam ($5). William Gerhardi, a polyglot Englishman who was born in Russia, has written novels, short stories, a play, a critical biography of Chekhov. He is ...

GOGOL (329 pp.)—David Magarshack —Grove Press ($6.50).Nikolai Gogol was one of those truly bizarre characters who appeared in. and occasionally wrote, the great Russian novels of the 19th ...