2015 was Vietnam's anniversary year. On September 2, the country celebrated 70 years of independence: the August Revolution of 1945 and the proclamation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. And another memorable date: 40 years have passed since the liberation of South Vietnam in 1975. The publication of a scientific reference publication dedicated to these dates, edited by Candidate of Historical Sciences E. V. Kobelev , " Modern Vietnam. Handbook" (Moscow, IDV RAS, 2015, 366 p.) is timely and in demand. The handbook was prepared and published by the Center for Vietnam and ASEAN Studies of the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The authors involved Vietnamese scientists not only from leading research centers and universities in Moscow-IDV RAS, IV RAS, ISAA MSU, the Museum of Oriental Studies, but also from other centers studying Vietnam - St. Petersburg University, Far Eastern University, as well as from such organizations as the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, the Russian Council for International Relations, etc. Trade Mission of the Russian Federation in Vietnam. Thus, 25 authors worked on the preparation of the handbook-qualified specialists of different generations, each specializing in their own field, and this is one of the main advantages of the publication. The handbook consists of 8 sections, the last 6 devoted to the present and united by a common title - "Vietnam at the beginning of the XXI century". The titles of the sections indicate the authors ' desire to cover almost all aspects of the country's social life in the first decade and a half of the XXI century. Section 1 "General characteristics" contains the following chapters:: "Administrative divisions of Vietnam", "Cities", "Ethnic composition of the population", "Languages, writing", "Religions: Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Islam and religious sects". The chronological framework of section 2 "Historical overview" covers the periods from the ... Read more