What resources are available to the student who in the Soviet Union wants to become an Africanist or just to inform himself about the state of affairs in Africa?

If the student in question is a complete neophyte, he can go first to Afrika, an encyclopedia in two volumes, published under the general editorship of I.I. Potexin, by “Sovetskaja enciklopedija.” The first volume opens with excellent essays on the natural milieu, historical development, demography, economics, and the cultural heritage of Africa. Then (p. 197) begins the properly encyclopedic section which continues to the end of the second volume.