The Wild, Wild World of Russian History Scholars

I should be posting more frequently here, but I have to admit that I am not exactly coming across a whole lot of great news in the field of Russian history.  Yes, I've said that before.  Just finished reading the most current issues of Russian History, Slavic Review and the American Historical Review.  I browsed through all the scholarly articles (read none), and then browsed through and read a lot of the book reviews.  There is nothing that I can pass on to you from all of that reading, and not sure why the stuff is even published.  One thing that did strike me was that most of the book reviewers don't know the subject well enough to be critical of the book under review.  They all mostly sum up the book and then say what a lovely contribution it is to the field.  Look, if you are reviewing a book about the Eastern Front in 1916, and the author used no Russian sources (of any kind), I am not sure how it can contribute to anything.