Contributors CHINGIZ AITMATOV is a renowned Soviet writer from Kirghizia, recipient of the highest literary awards in the USSR. His early fiction including Jamilia and Farewell Gulsari has been translated into major Indian languages. Recent works like The White Ship, A Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years have been published in the West by Hodden & Stoughton and Futura Publications, Macdonald Press, London. LEVON BABAYAN is in honoured architect of Armenia. V. DEMIN is a film critic and senior research scholar at the Institute of Art Criticism. He has written extensively on cinema including a book. Mow Communication and Contemporary Culture. RASHMI DORAISWAMY is a Ph.D. student at the Centre of Russian studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Her thesis is on Bakhtin. VYACHESLAV IVANOV is a drama critic and research scholar at the Institute of Art Criticism. He has to his credit many articles on theatre including a book on Georgian theatre. R. KAMINKAS is an honoured architect of Lithuania, and a specialist in the renovation of ancient mon 'ments. ELEAZAR MELETINSKY is one of the leading Soviet Structuralists. His main books are The Hero of the Fairy Tale (1958), The Origins of the Heroic Epic (1963). Poetics of a Myth (1976), Paleoasiatic Mythological Epic (1979), The Medieval Novel (1983). Over 50 books and articles of his have been translated into major languages. PRASANNA is a playwright and theatre director, and founder ofSamudaya in Karnataka. He has staged numerous plays ofBrecht, Chekhov, G, Karnad and his own. In 1985 he directed C. Aitmatov and K. Mohammejanov's play The Ascent of Fujiyama at the National School of Drama. KALPANA SAHNI teaches Russian and Soviet Literature at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. She has written extensively on Russian literature in journals, in India and abroad. Her books include A Mind in Ferment: Mikhail Bulgakov's Prose. ANDREI TARKOVSKY was a renowned film director. His films include: Ivan s Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, Mirror, Stalker, Nostalgia. Most of them have won major awards at film festivals. His latest film. The Sacrifice, a joint Franco-Swedish venture won the 1986 Critics Award at the Cannes Film Festival as also the award for the best camera work.