This is the second edition of a comprehensive and very good textbook, which has served the reviewer for several years as an important teaching aid on the Soviet legal system and governmental institutions. The book may even serve for references, when a general answer is required. The first edition was published in 1983, while the second takes us up to March 1988, thus containing important changes which were taking place in the course of perestroika and glasnost from 1984–85. It should be stated that the Soviet legal system has been marked by a most boisterous legislative activity, and these changes augur further significant changes, which would require either a third edition of the book or a substantial supplement. There are, of course, Collected Legislation of the USSR and Constituent Union Republics, which are regularly updated as a loose-leaf publication, collated, and translated by the same author.