Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Dennis Browne for his extensive help in preparing this work. I am also grateful to Professor Steven Hochstadt for introducing me to Kronstadt, and to Professor Jane Costlow and the staff of the Reference Department of the George and Helen Ladd Library whose efforts in obtaining necessary resources were both invaluable and greatly appreciated. Professor Richard Stites of Georgetown University provided many useful suggestions toward improving the readability and usefulness of the text -- many of which it should be noted I have yet to implement. I would also like to specially thank Andrei Strukov and Maksim Kopanitsa for all their kindness and knowledge in providing information on the intricacies of the Russian language and of early Soviet-era culture.

Materials for the work were provided by the George and Helen Ladd Library at Bates College, the Library of the University of Connecticut, the Library of the University of Vermont, the Library of Congress, the Mount Holyoke College Library, the Columbia University Library, and the private collection of Professor Jane Costlow. Supplemental material for the online version of this work were obtained from the University of Michigan Harlan Hatcher Library and the University of Michigan Special Collections Library.

Translating this text would have been much more difficult without the excellent Russian-English dictionary of Professors A. I. Smirnitsky and O. S. Akhmanova, which is also the source of all weight and measure definitions.

The deepest debt of all is owed to my editor and friend Mary Huey. Her persistence, encouragement, and diligent dedication of great amounts of personal time to the project have been solely responsible for making this work available to the public in the face of a procrastinating and distracted author. She is truly remarkable.

Finally, I wish to note that all shortcomings of the text are thanks to myself.