A CANADIAN'S ROAD TO RUSSIA: LETTERS FROM THE GREAT WAR DECADE Stuart Ramsay Tompkins Edited by Doris H. Pieroth Edmonton, The University of Alberta Press, 1989. 466pp, cloth, $30.00 ISBN 0-88864-144-3, CIP Grades 12 and up/Ages 17 and up Reviewed by Joan McGrath. Volume 17 Number 5 1989 September The title of A Canadian's Road to Russia is misleading in that only a small portion (pages 361-419) of the text has to do with Stuart Tompkins's brief sojourn in that country at the end of World War I and absolutely nothing to do with any conversion on his part to what he described as Bolshevism. The lengthy volume is, in fact, a huge collection of letters from Tompkins to Edna Jane Christie, his fiancee and later his wife. Their chief interest lies in what they reveal of a quaintly Edwardian view of women and of the relations between men and women. Tompkins seems to have been an extraordinarily sheltered and somewhat prissy young man, even for his day. His letters from the trenches retell the familiar story of dirt, danger, discomfort, and utter des­perate boredom, one result of which was his study of the Russian language and his eventual posting to Russia in late 1918. Tompkins greatly resented the attitude of the British he encountered, who tended to snub and condescend to "colonials," while expecting great sacrifices from them on behalf of "the English way of life." He himself was guilty of a casual racism, especially toward Asians, as evidenced by his use of unpleasant racial epithets. In sum, this very long book is less than absorbing, and adds little beyond the personal to the known history of the period covered, 1912-1919. Recom­mended only for the use of senior students engaged in specialized research of the Great War decade and its social and political attitudes. Joan McGrath, Toronto Board of Education, Toronto, Ont.