When I went travelling around Russia in 1990, I picked up a number of books which were freely available for anyone to take. These books were pretty much dull reports, essays or copies of speeches by various luminaries. The person I was travelling with was convinced I’d be “turned” to the evils of Communism by having them.

Anyway, I’ve uploaded scans of the covers to Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hairydalek ... 631002269/

Some of the books are pretty fragile now. The Space Q&A book’s cover has broken - it’s not been torn. It just broke off when I opened it one time. Some of the others are perfect bound, and I suspect that should I open them too much, the glue will give up the ghost.

Mind you, when you have titles like this, it’s got to be worth the risk, eh?


We’re Working With The Prosperity Of The Peasants In Mind - Peval Fedirko (Front) by hairydalek, on Flickr


On the Political and Legal Assessment of the Soviet-German Non-Agression Treaty of 1939 (Front) by hairydalek, on Flickr


The People’s Health is Society’s Wealth - Evgeni Chazov (Front) by hairydalek, on Flickr

Some interesting titles, that's for sure. It's a wonder the USSR survived as long as it did if this was the kind of literature the people had to read.

I assume I'm not the only one that's.. intrigued by the notion that the USSR government used to produce stuff in English.

Jon

I suspect they produced tons of stuff in all kinds of languages. It's propaganda. It was happening with radio on all sides throughout the Cold War - Voice of America, BBC World Service, Radio Moscow.

Each title was available in many languages. It was intended for foreign travellers to pick up, take away and read. There were long shelves of them in the larger airports. I only came back with the titles I scanned - but there were so many more.