Just a few quibbles. 1. Since the book may be of interest to readers who do not know Russian, translations of Russian titles in the notes and bibliography might be useful-people sometimes like to know what has been written even when they can't read it. 2. On page 6, Carlson writes: "A period of cultural schizophrenia, the Silver Age simultaneously experienced two antithetical worlds. One was the bright, rational, scientific world of Karl Marx and historical materialism, Max Planck and quantum mechanics, and Albert Einstein and the theory of relativity (1905); modem science reigned here. The opposite world was the dark, mysterious realm of Friedrich Nietzsche and eternal return, Richard Wagner and the modem mystery drama, the French poetes maudits, the haunting canvases of Jean Delville, Odilon Redon, and Gustave Moreau; this was the other world of Mme Blavatsky and the occult." This antithesis may be more rhetorical than substantive. Marx really belongs to an earlier generation, and maybe also to a later one, and while "scientific" is accurate, "bright" and "rational" may not be the best adjectives for quantum mechanics and relativity, especially in relation to the Newtonian theories they replaced.
The scholarly apparatus seems sound, the bibliography and notes are a gold mine of information and suggestions, and I could find no typographical or proofreading errors. Most of what Maria Carlson has presented in this book is new to the field, and it is masterfully done.