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In mid 80ies, I wrote a huge article for school history project on Genghis Khan using reference material from my grandmother's copy of The Great Soviet Encyclop

In mid 80ies, I wrote a huge article for school history project on Genghis Khan using reference material from my grandmother's copy of The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 50 volume edition from likely mid 50ies, USSRs answer to Britannica. Gorgeous drawings, gilded cover, lots of really insightful articles. I learned a lot about Mongol invasion and got top grades. I wonder where those books went after her death...

walterbell 4y ago
Do you know if there's an English version?
- macintux 4y ago
  It’s been 40 years so I don’t remember what it was called, but my local library in Indiana had a copy of a Soviet encyclopedia in English. It was fascinating looking at the different perspective on world events.
- danielodievich 4y ago
  The Great Soviet Encyclopedia was by its nature USSR only. I only ever saw Russian language version. Or if you ask about Chenghiz Khan, lots have been written about him. I have "CHINGGIS KHAN: The Golden History of the Mongols" from Folio Society (https://www.amazon.com/CHINGGIS-KHAN-Golden-History-Mongols/dp/B000LJPPZK https://www.amazon.com/CHINGGIS-KHAN-Golden-History-Mongols/...), a book from roughly 7 centuries ago from his contemporaries. It reads like a mixture of poetry and really bloody fantasy. All of the geographic places are unrecognizable to modern reader. Great stuff.
  - walterbell 4y ago
    This appears to be the current version in Russian language, https://bigenc.ru/ https://bigenc.ru/
- LTom 4y ago
  There is an English version. It pops up when looking up subjects on https://www.thefreedictionary.com/ https://www.thefreedictionary.com/, but I don't think there's a way to directly browse it (and I find the site in general rather cumbersome to use). An example: https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Gosplan https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Gosplan
  - walterbell 4y ago
    Thanks for the pointer, found some online references and eBay has a few physical copies in Russian and English. 14-day online loan, https://archive.org/details/greatsovietencyc0027unse https://archive.org/details/greatsovietencyc0027unse 180 sample pages, https://greatsovietencyclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Special:AllPages https://greatsovietencyclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Special:AllP... Sketchy download link for thefreedictionary content, allegedly including GSE, in MDX format for mdict reader apps. $4 iOS/Android apps for TheFreeDictionary Pro claims offline dictionaries, but doesn't mention GSE.
Animats 4y ago
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia had an English edition. I once came across it in a public library. It was an interesting read. The articles on mathematics were jewels. They'd clearly been written by people who really understood the subject. The articles on economics were interesting, as they went into the nuts and bolts of how planning in the USSR worked. It wasn't optimized for money. It was optimized for criteria such as minimum ton-miles of transportation. The political articles were just weird. They read like too many people had censored them.
- LTom 4y ago
  I studied art history in university, and for some reason, when looking up a certain obscurer topic brought up during a lecture on architecture, the only online source mentioning at the time was the English edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Nowadays other sources mention it, but at first glance the GSE still seems to be the only source actually describing it. I wish there was a proper offline version of the GSE, since consulting it through https://www.thefreedictionary.com https://www.thefreedictionary.com is rather cumbersome.

walterbell 4y ago

Do you know if there's an English version?

macintux 4y ago
It’s been 40 years so I don’t remember what it was called, but my local library in Indiana had a copy of a Soviet encyclopedia in English. It was fascinating looking at the different perspective on world events.
danielodievich 4y ago
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia was by its nature USSR only. I only ever saw Russian language version. Or if you ask about Chenghiz Khan, lots have been written about him. I have "CHINGGIS KHAN: The Golden History of the Mongols" from Folio Society (https://www.amazon.com/CHINGGIS-KHAN-Golden-History-Mongols/dp/B000LJPPZK https://www.amazon.com/CHINGGIS-KHAN-Golden-History-Mongols/...), a book from roughly 7 centuries ago from his contemporaries. It reads like a mixture of poetry and really bloody fantasy. All of the geographic places are unrecognizable to modern reader. Great stuff.
- walterbell 4y ago
  This appears to be the current version in Russian language, https://bigenc.ru/ https://bigenc.ru/
LTom 4y ago
There is an English version. It pops up when looking up subjects on https://www.thefreedictionary.com/ https://www.thefreedictionary.com/, but I don't think there's a way to directly browse it (and I find the site in general rather cumbersome to use). An example: https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Gosplan https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Gosplan
- walterbell 4y ago
  Thanks for the pointer, found some online references and eBay has a few physical copies in Russian and English. 14-day online loan, https://archive.org/details/greatsovietencyc0027unse https://archive.org/details/greatsovietencyc0027unse 180 sample pages, https://greatsovietencyclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Special:AllPages https://greatsovietencyclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Special:AllP... Sketchy download link for thefreedictionary content, allegedly including GSE, in MDX format for mdict reader apps. $4 iOS/Android apps for TheFreeDictionary Pro claims offline dictionaries, but doesn't mention GSE.

Animats 4y ago

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia had an English edition. I once came across it in a public library. It was an interesting read. The articles on mathematics were jewels. They'd clearly been written by people who really understood the subject. The articles on economics were interesting, as they went into the nuts and bolts of how planning in the USSR worked. It wasn't optimized for money. It was optimized for criteria such as minimum ton-miles of transportation. The political articles were just weird. They read like too many people had censored them.

LTom 4y ago
I studied art history in university, and for some reason, when looking up a certain obscurer topic brought up during a lecture on architecture, the only online source mentioning at the time was the English edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Nowadays other sources mention it, but at first glance the GSE still seems to be the only source actually describing it. I wish there was a proper offline version of the GSE, since consulting it through https://www.thefreedictionary.com https://www.thefreedictionary.com is rather cumbersome.