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 alle

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.