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Not just fiction, but Russian technical books were also memorable from my childhood in India. Many here would remember their struggles with I.E.Irodov's Problems in General Physics [1] as much as stories of Chuk and Gek [2], or Misha.
[1]: https://archive.org/details/IrodovProblemsInGeneralPhysics
I'm studying for the JEE and Yes! Irodov is a beautiful book. That, along with Krotov, tells me Russia must have had an excellent program, with their Physics books from the above, their Chemistry books from Landau, and their Math Circles.
A low cost Indian publisher named "Arihant Publications" has published Irodov's (and others) books under "Classic Texts Series"; all available on Amazon India.
Irodov is one of that must have book for competitive exam but very hard
I was lucky to get hold of 70 of these books in absolute mint condition (except for rusted stapler pins) last year after years of futile search in secondhand markets all across India. My dad, a book hoarder extraordinaire in his own right, managed to connect with a retired journalist who apparently stumbled upon them in Nepal and bought them at like less than a dollar a kilo or something!
For anyone interested in scanned files of these in Telugu, you can get them from my blog here http://linkdot.link/sooviytt-prcurnnlu-childrens-books.html#...
https://www.arvindguptatoys.com/ probably has the largest collection of many of these books in English and other Indian languages. There are tons of children’s books from other countries too.
Holy smokes this is awesome! Kannada being my mother tongue I can read (more or less ;-)) Telugu! BTW do you have Stories from Russian History? I had its Kannada edition as a child; been searching for it for a while. The book title (in Kannada) is "Russian Itihasadinda Kathegalu".
Those looking to buy Soviet era books in Mumbai, check out People's Book Store in Fort area (Google maps- https://goo.gl/maps/pJd7ve2g68D8AXsK7). Behind racks of Marx and Che Guevara are stashed quite some rare books.
I distinctly remember seeing the cover image book (Adventures of Denis). Visited sometime in late 2018.
I remember these short 20-30 page math books written for 6th-8th grade students by prominent Soviet mathematicians. Extremely clear exposition. About 30 years later, I still remember the contents of the book on logarithms, which gave geometric interpretation of log as the area under the curve of 1/x, and used that to show why log must satisfy properties such as log(ab) = log(a) + log(b). As a 12 year old, my mind was blown away and I read all such books that I could find, which lead to a lifelong passion for mathematics.
What a difference it makes when you're thought by someone who's passionate about the subject.
Do you happen to know what that logarithm book was?
I remember those books and I'll always regret that I misplaced them.
Do you happen to know a collector who's selling them?
Irodov and Crotov ?
+1
The books by Soviet authors always seemed so much less verbose than those from the West. I particularly appreciated this, as I had - and have - poor English ability (like many other Indians), but was nevertheless forced into an exclusively English based education (also like many other Indians).
There are gems like Spivak from the other side, but I find it much rarer. Even papers are annoyingly verbose - almost as if to compensate for general lack of novelty.
(forgive the rant).
Growing up in India, I had quite a few of these Soviet gems on my bookstand. The only thing I had that originated from the West were a pair of Levi jeans. I was shocked to find out that a system that could make those jeans would win against one that made those books. In the early 2000s I was working in SV and repeated this remark to a Russian colleague. He told me of course the system that made the jeans is superior - he did not get his first pair of jeans till he got to the US and the trousers that he wore in Russia were absolutely horrible when compared to the jeans. Jeans to him were a marvel of engineering. The fact that a system could produce affordable jeans that would last for years, which people could buy whenever they wanted by strolling into their neighborhood shop was a much bigger achievement than state sponsored STEM books
I grew up with plenty of very good Soviet books and without Levi jeans.
The jeans were a status symbol, almost impossible to find and the price was 1-2-3 salaries of an engineer, teacher or doctor.
Now that I have more access to jeans but having troubles finding good books for my kids, I would chose the books over the jeans. But I wouldn't go back to USSR.
It's also a bit a false narrative that systems win or lose: the USSR people decided they wanted to change, and they changed. The system they have now is not exactly the American system, you'll agree, and they're not dead: so what "won" ? KGB-controlled non-communist autocracy, or Liberal Capitalism ? I'd say the first :)
Now what inspire copy from other country, maybe your definition of winning, is probably the second one. But it didn't have to be at the fall of the wall, or the USSR. The problem was always the USSR, but the solution will probably rarely be the US.
Some of the most awesome books I fondly remember from my childhood are Soviet ones. One awesome thing about those books were that they were translated to regional language and were printed/typeset in equally high quality papers and hard bound as the original. One reason most comments here are able to relate with the post is because those books were accessible to them in their mother tongue. Russia/India did a fabulous job in translating those books to Indian languages and still maintain high quality print and typeset. Unlike now in those days English language was not accessible so all the education and learning was in the child's mother tongue.
Physics for Entertainment -- Yakov Perelman [1] is one such book.
[1] https://www.amazon.in/Physics-Entertainment-Book-Yakov-Perel...
I remember having a hard-bound Bengali translation of Russian folk tales with characters like Baba Yaga, names like Alynoushka/Ivanoushka and houses that had feet and turned on them. Considering how rich the Bengali language is, it was a match made in heaven. I found a nice pdf of 16 Russian folk tales for my daughter - each quite detailed - she loves them.
Soviet era books always rock. I honestly adore my copy of Mathemaics: Its content, methods and meaning.
Getting good books are really difficult these days. Nothing is more enjoyable than having your Sunday coffee while reading a good book.
India and USSR had deep ties during the cold war. The US was pro Pakistan, which naturally pushed India to ally with Soviet. This cultural exchange is obvious.
Fun fact: Dennis Dragunskiy, the hero of his father's stories, is a very real person, now in his late 60s, has turned to literature too, and is very active on Facebook writing short stories. He is one of the most popular people in the russian Facebook.
I remember traveling exhibitions from Navkarnataka Publications which used to be fascinating. Mostly Russian books along with very nationalist (in the good sense) literature. Ukrainian Folk Tales and many Russian math books. I remember buying a book on astronomy - quite possibly of Soviet origin - at one of these exhibitions, which introduced me to the delights of the sky.
Three things the Soviet culture implanted in your brain:
- Books are sacred
- Wash your hands before meals
- Drafts make you sick
yakov perelman - mathematics can be fun.
I still remember the sense of wonder and deeper understanding that this book provided, which led to interest in math and cs.
Found it on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Can-Fun-Yakov-Perelman/dp...
We had some more similar books growing up in 80s, but this was the best for me.
I would recommend Sergei Mihkalkhov's Disobedience Holiday and other children's stories. Soviet children's writing was very high quality and at par with what was being written in the west. Perhaps the Soviet ones had better art too and were well printed and bound.
Even the lush Soviet inks had a peculiarly inviting smell and eye-popping colour.
Yep. Grew up with them, and it was these books that sustained my interest and imagination in science.
I still remember a hard-bound, deep blue coloured (roughly) notebook sized book that had these amazing DIY projects for space, including a rover etc. I don't think I could ever make the more complicated ones- they required woodwork etc which I simply didn't have access to as a child. But they helped me dream and develop an interest in making stuff of my own, and they are one of the reasons why I still love tinkering.
I wish I could get hold of that book once again, but I can't even recall it's name!
The obvious passion for well-written, physical books made me smile. A nice read for a Sunday morning, so thanks.
Here in the US, we’re obsessed with copyright and stamping away physical books; and replacing them with more ephemeral digital “copies” (a huge f** you to Amazon).
As a side note: I remember reading that the Soviet Union and India enjoyed a good relationship back in the 1970s and onward. I always wondered what sort of impact it had on India.
Another tangent: Some of these books look amazing for someone trying to revive his passion for math, decades after college.
There is also a great podcast episode on the cross-cultural exchanges between India and Russia - https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/from-bombay-with-love...
Dang, where do I find them? I have Soviet propaganda posters and some random Soviet memorabilia.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNk1TuBlmSZ
I have faint memories of reading Misha comics in English when I had just about started reading. Do remember enjoying it along with other Indian content in Hindi like Champak/Chandamama but unlike these we maybe stopped getting supplies of these later with the USSR implosion as I don't remember coming across them later.
Absolutely
Mir publishers used to sell books for INR 10 in late 80s
I am indebted for life to these books.
For our engagement , my new fiancée gave me a complete set of the Landau-Lifschitz course and I gave her a diamond ring. Both gifts were clear, glittering , timeless.
I was a physics student in Italy in the early '00 and math and physics MIR books in Italian were beginning to be hard to find as newer editions were coming out. I remember the feeling of pride when I snagged a copy of a book on calculus of variations for a couple of euros. I still think the graphic design was amazing [0].
Obviously Landau-Lifshitz was also a must read (though it was starting to show its age in some subjects). I also recently found a MIR Russian translation of Gardner in a market in Kyiv (illustrated hardcover for under $2...).
[0] https://www.ebay.it/itm/Edizioni-MIR-Krasnov-Calcolo-delle-V...
A travelling Russian bookshow came regularly to my medical school in Vellore.
They had great books on physics and electronics.
One thing I loved about visiting relatives in India in the 70s was the exciting soviet influence which was not available in the west. "Cosmonauts visit Delhi" screamed a newspaper headline that made me beg to go visit Delhi. I've never forgotten that.
As an adult, I of course realized the Soviet Union was only interesting because I wasn't getting a full picture, but that is true of a lot of things I suppose.
marathi is such an interesting language. I wish I had paid attention in school.
I loved a hardcover book as a child called dada ka chashma. I remembered that book seemed to be from Soviet union. I just searched for it and it's called grandpa's glasses by Georgi Yurmin.
Ah! This brings so many memories. My grandmother bought me some of these when I was a kid and they were my all time favorites. There used to be book-fairs even in smaller towns like mine and bought tons of them. (All in my native tongue, Kannada)
What a sweetly nostalgic trip back in time through these comments. Misha, Irodov and many other Russian children books are such a treasured time from my childhood.
If anyone has any scanned copies of Misha, I’d be very grateful if you can share please!
I remember my mom reading these for me, and I'd go "what kind of a name is Ilya?" And years later at University our elective humanities professor explained in detail how Soviet and American propaganda worked in the older days and that was when I truly understood
In Vietnam, at one time, there was a very popular Russian children book called "Old Man Khottabych". Aside from the typical communist teachings and propaganda, the plot is actually interesting and the book is a lot of fun to read.
I had gotten hold of a few Misha books. I think they were bilingual. As a result I could read Cyrillic alphabet and Russian to some extent. Not any more alas.
This gets posted rather regularly, so you might want to search for previous posts if you're after the discussion.
Reading Russian fairy tales is one of the fondest memories of my childhood. So many beautiful, lively pictures, and unique stories made my slow and hot Indian afternoons enjoyable.
Such books had very good Bengali translations printed on very expensive papers with expensive ink which Indian publishers could only dream of even 10 years ago.
My state (WB, IN) was ruled by Communists for 34 years and we got book printed in Russia in extremely low prices (subsided by USSR).
Here's some pictures from one of such a book sitting in my shelf right now-
Here, in Ukraine, we usually try get rid of the soviet legacy and I’ve never heard about anybody collecting soviet books. They are filled with communist propaganda and are not fun to read.
The thing is, they were printed at a massive scale (up to 100s of thousands), which doesn’t help them in being a valuable collectible.
By the way, there is a website where soviet children books translated to ukrainian are published with illustrations in case anybody is interested in such things:
https://xn--80aaukc.xn--j1amh/
english version (much smaller):