Many western limnologists have no or a very limited knowledge and
understanding of limnology in the Soviet Union; the language barrier is
simply too hermetic, and the threshold for making the effort (and
spending the money) for obtaining translations of significant Russian
works is usually too high for most Eu- ropeans and North Americans.
There is so much to read aside from that literature printed in the
cyrillic al- phabet that, not by intention or by design, but by sheer
inertia, we tend to forget about it altogether. Of course, we are wrong,
and we know it. Today, 'Hydrobiologia' is proud to present a theme
volume by one of the active Soviet limnologist groups, ably steered by
Nikolai Smirnov. Their target lake, Glubokoe ozero, is one of the better
studied waters of the northern hemisphere, and the series of
contributions included in this collection of papers aims both at
illustrating this point and at making this interesting material widely
available in a congress language. I am confident that 'Studies on Lake
Glubokoe' will make a significant contribution to a well-merited better
penetration of Russian science onto the world market. H. 1. Dumont
Contents Preface.... ... . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . .. . .. . . . ..
. ... ... . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . ... . ... . ..... .
. . . V Lake Glubokoe (Moscow region, Eastern Europe), general
characteristics by N. N. Smirnov
.................................................................... .