By the book: reflections on an Indian childhood reading Soviet hardbacks

https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/4172/reflections-on-an-indian-childhood-reading-soviet-books

by lelf • 7 years ago

106 75 7 years ago

bibyte• 7 years ago

This is really fascinating. Because even though I am an Indian I didn't know the Soviet Union and India were that close. I wonder if any Indian school books mention this.

woadwarrior01• 7 years ago

While I was growing up in the 90s in the same state in India as the author of the article, English translations Soviet science and math books were super cheap (I suspect they were heavily subsidized) and have had a profound impact on me. My mum used to read a lot of the English translations of literary works, but I had no interest in them until I was much older.

Tsubasachan2• 7 years ago

During the Cold War India was leaning to the Soviets. Its also the reason why Nato never really tried to stop Pakistan from acquiring the atomic bomb.

Ofcourse nowadays India is a democratic republic with a good relationship with the West.

billfruit8• 7 years ago

India did sometimes try to be in a neutral position with respect to both the West and the Soviets, for eg: the Indian Nuclear program had large support from the Canadians. Indian space program had help from the Americans and the French as well as the Soviets.

sseth2• 7 years ago

It's good to know the history here. For most of 50s and 60s we were roughly equidistant between US and USSR. It was the crass support for Pakistan's Ayub Khan by Nixon and Kissinger before the Bangladesh war in 1971, which forced India to shift a little closer to the Soviet Union. Both Nixon and Kissinger had a visceral hatred of India and Indira Gandhi - see [1].

The USSR did help us with arms and with votes in the United Nations. While this was generally helpful, it led to a shameful episode when India chose to tacitly support the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan. It may surprise many Indians to know that more recently, inspite of our tilt to the West, we have supported Russia's annexation of Crimea, and we were one of the first major countries to recognize the annexation.

[1] https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/indira-gandhi-is-...

agapon2• 7 years ago

I do not think that India has recognized that annexation. And there are no major countries that have recognized it.

lordleft• 7 years ago

I'm taking a Russian lit class right now and it’s astonishing how much my Indian mother can follow along with my recounting of various plot points from Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. Russian literature is beloved in India

billfruit8• 7 years ago

While I think Russian lit is indeed beloved in India, Nabokov is perhaps yet to get his due appreciation, perhaps Solzhenitsyn also.

alehul2• 7 years ago

Nabokov, to be fair, left Russia before the age of 18 and I don't believe he ever returned [1]. Lolita, his magnum opus (at least by public opinion), was first written in English. Despite his upbringing, I'm not sure he would be best classified as Russian Lit.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov

anticodon• 7 years ago

I doubt that works of Solzhenitsyn has any value as a literature. He was a tool of political propaganda against USSR. There're numerous lies and exaggerations in his books. In 20-50 years everybody will forget him for good.

raybon2• 7 years ago

I loved Baba Yaga when I was 8 in South India!

jeswin2• 7 years ago

Soviet books and influence were especially common in the state of Kerala, where we had the first democratically elected communist government. I remember this book called Misha (for kids) and Soviet Woman for well, women. They were very high quality prints, and was a joy to read.

Till the 80s Kerala had strong Soviet influence in politics, lifestyle and even in the architecture of buildings. I remember when I visited Vietnam, I was surprised by how similar their cities looked.

muks2• 7 years ago

We got Misha in Hyderabad too in the 80s. My mother used to buy them for me regularly when I was a kid.

poorna13• 7 years ago

Yup. I got Misha even in a small town in Karnataka. I remember writing to Russian pen pals via Misha.

Abishek_Muthian2• 7 years ago

I'm from Coimbtore, Tamilnadu.

Me & my sister loved reading Misha in the early 90's. Some of the stories where deep.

Is there an online archive for those magazines?

P.S. I'm writing this via kindle & I didn't take any effort to search for it.

Edit:typo

yantrams10• 7 years ago

Here you go :) https://mirtitles.org/2018/11/11/misha-stack/

g4omingron• 7 years ago

No mention of the most famous Russian book among Indian high Schoolers: [Problems in General Physics by I E Irodov](https://www.amazon.com/Problems-General-Physics-I-Irodov/dp/...)?

kobiguru2• 7 years ago

I have spent so much time with this book growing up. It was THE Book to solve to get the bragging rights that you know your physics.

rahulun2• 7 years ago

Ah I still ‘see’ the tiny fonts when I think about the book..

yantrams10• 7 years ago

For REAL bragging rights, you had to solve Krotov :)

signa11• 7 years ago

don't forget i.a. maron for calculus :)

rraghur• 7 years ago

Heh! Irodov problems were dope... Spend multiple days putting over the same problem and the exhilaration when you finally crack it!

Still brings back memories

krat0sprakhar• 7 years ago

Haha, this brings back memories! Spent so much time slouching over this book and taking a crack at the problems. Thanks for comment and triggering a trip down the memory lane :)

pankajk1• 7 years ago

There was a Mir Publishers bookshop close to my college in Patna and I would make regular visits in hope of landing gems like IE Irodov. Alas, most other Science books were so so and nowhere near their American counterparts (Halliday Resnick for Physics, Morrison Boyd for Chemistry comes to mind).

billfruit8• 7 years ago

The Soviets did have the Landau book for physics, though I do not know if it was made available in India.

I should put a word for an Indian publishing house named Narosa which put out cheap editions of text books(mostly western) like the Feynman Lectures, Fermi's Thermodynamics, etc.

avmich2• 7 years ago

"Space Adventures in your Home" by F. Rabiza is perhaps this - https://itexts.net/avtor-florentiy-vladimirovich-rabiza/2638... - another translation "Space at your house" by Florentii Rabiza.

muks2• 7 years ago

Wow.. wow.. there are others who have read the same things. :)

The hydro pneumatic rocket!

I tried to find Mir publishers books about 10 years ago. Apparently Mir got bought out and publishing ceased.

Another gem is "Fun with maths and physics" by Ya Perelman. It's available in a cheap reprint now, nothing that matches the original Mir publishers book.

vishnugupta2• 7 years ago

I read the Kannada translation of the book "Fun with Physics" back when I was in primary school. Didn't understand large parts of it but that didn't stop me from repeatedly reading the books. As high quality as the content was I absolutely loved the high quality print, glossy and gorgeous paper, and really beautiful and durable hard cover. The illustrations were also of high quality. They also had a very distinct smell.

Another Kannada translated book I read (countless times) is stories from Russian history.

Needless to say Russian books are a part of my childhood :)

avmich2• 7 years ago

Wikipedia says Mir publishing house exists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_Publishers

kobiguru2• 7 years ago

I absolutely love MIR publishers. My interest in science still exists because of the books they published.

here Someone Has uploaded many of the MIR's titles.

https://mirtitles.org/category/mir-publishers/

talonx• 7 years ago

MIR, Raduga (mostly children's fiction), Progress (popular science, if I remember correctly) - these publishers were really cheap in 80s and 90s India, compared to similar books in terms of content, printing and binding. Perhaps that's why they were such a favourite. I used to frequent a bookstore solely devoted to these called Vostok. That bookstore is long gone.

I still have many of these, some gifted by relatives, in my shelves today.

These days, at book fairs and on sites like OLX, certain unscrupulous sellers have taken to selling whatever such Soviet hardbacks they can find at astronomical prices. To be fair to them, it's a supply and demand problem.

billfruit8• 7 years ago

I had a hardback of a soviet childrens book, which had a long story by Sergei Mikhalkhov called "Disobedience Holiday". Now thinking about it, it was as an allegory about the west in the same vein as "Animal Farm" was an allegory about the Soviets.

I think this is one of the things many in the third world started to be deprived off, following the Fall, inexpensive but very well made hardbacks printed in the USSR. The very smell of the ink and paper was something special, compared with locally made books.

The Chinese also had started printing cheap books for other countries in the third world, but they never could match the scope and scale of what USSR was doing.

And there seems to be an even older tradition of tiny pocket hardbacks mostly printed from England, small enough to fit almost in the palm of the hand, of classic novels majorly. I have managed to pick up a few at second hand sellers. I thought I'll write a blog post about them sometime, but I never came around to it.

orthoxerox• 7 years ago

Is that the one where the protagonists were called Turnip and Turnip?

lb1lf2• 7 years ago

As for the latter, that would possibly be The Collector's Library?

Large selection of classics, printed on thin 'Bible paper', hardback, diminutive size, ribbon marker.

I tend to always keep one or two in my cabin luggage for the occasions when I feel like giving the Kindle a rest.

billfruit8• 7 years ago

I do find them from different publishers, Oxford World Classics dated from 1940's and other's like Blackie and Son's from the 50's. They are so conveniently sized.

fredley• 7 years ago

"Ants among Elephants" by Sujatha Gidla is the true story of a communist revolutionary in (what is now) Andhra Pradesh in the mid 20th century, I'd recommend it: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450688-ants-among-elep...

tshanmu• 7 years ago

Ya Perelman - Fun with maths and Fun with Physics brings back so many memories (Irodov had too much at stake so there no unbounded joy of learning for learning's sake)

wces• 7 years ago

I started loving Physics with Marathi translation of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Physics-Entertainment-Yakov-Perelman/...

myth_drannon2• 7 years ago

Venkatesh Rao (of Gervais Principle fame) wrote nicely on the same topic https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/08/30/morning-is-wiser-than-...

sseth2• 7 years ago

I remember too. Wonderful books at throwaway prices. I remember Ya Perelman's books on physics. Also a wonderful book just on limits which helped me understand the concept in a way which no other maths book could. And we also used to have beautifully illustrated magazines. I still have many of these books. I think Ya Perelman really made me fall in love with Physics.

yantrams10• 7 years ago

Yakov Perelman forever! Are you referring to the limits book in dialogue format ? I came across one few years back.

yantrams10• 7 years ago

I can't emphasize enough how important these books were in shaping my childhood in a rural town in India. I still vividly remember making a fuss when Misha and Sputnik stopped after the fall of Soviet. A part of me is forever indebted to Russia for this.

Given the strong Communist presence in Andhra Pradesh, the state I am from, we were lucky to have a great number of these books translated to Telugu, by no less than legends like Sri Sri.

I have some of the children's books uploaded on my blog at http://linkdot.link/sooviytt-prcurnnlu-childrens-books.html

PS: I named my daughter Aelita after the science fiction classic.

jhbadger• 7 years ago

Funny thing about the Sputnik magazine. In a lot of the West it was seen as Communist propaganda (which to be fair a lot of it was), but in the late 1980s it was actually banned in East Germany because it wasn't Communist enough as it wrote favorably about Perestroika and Glasnost, which the leaders of the GDR weren't happy about.

yantrams10• 7 years ago

Interesting to know that!

lb1lf2• 7 years ago

According to an ossi friend of mine, the moment he could no longer buy Sputnik, that torch of progressive socialism at his local Leipzig newsstand was the moment he realised that the GDRs days were numbered...

markvdb• 7 years ago

What many people don't realise is that the Soviets also made significant investments in "high" culture in western Europe. I distinctly remember a very important independent film distributor in Belgium got at least partly financed initially by the USSR. They did modestly well and were able to survive the collapse of the USSR until well past the year 2000.

Edit: The distributor was called Progrès films, founded in 1950 by the communist party of Belgium. It worked until 2002, after which other independent cinema projects like cinéart and cinélibre took over.

myth_drannon2• 7 years ago

Well, the belief was that the capitalist regimes were keeping down and exploiting the proletariat by keeping them uneducated. Once given an opportunity for education and exposed to science and culture they will raise up against their masters.

selune2• 7 years ago

Comments in this thread are kind of trippy but also so heartwarming to read. I was born in independent Ukraine but, unsurprisingly, I studied math and physics with the help of all of those Soviet handbooks: Perelman, Irodov etc, basically all of them are household names.

It's amazing to realize that somebody from a totally different culture, continent, language, was slouching over the same problems as I was, maybe even at the same time.

vram222• 7 years ago

Good points. I am in India. When in college, used to buy and read those books, for math., physics, etc. Good content. I remember Ya. Perelman's [1] books in particular, for popularizing physics to the layman. Stuff about perpetual motion machines (explaining why they cannot work), physical phenomena related to refraction, reflection, etc., and much else besides.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_Perelman

ordu• 7 years ago

I wonder who Rabiza was; none of the many fan sites for Soviet books say that.

I've found a short postmortem from 2002 in a magazine "Science and Life"[1]. Seems he was engineer, painter and popular science writer/journalist.

[1] https://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/4982/

DarmokJalad1701• 7 years ago

I remember reading translated versions of Yakov Perelman's "Physics for Entertainment" as a kid. There were also translations of more "propaganda-ish" works like "Three Fat Men".

By the book: reflections on an Indian childhood reading Soviet hardbacks

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