Great Soviet Encyclopedia

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Title page of the 3rd ed. (in Russian), 1st vol.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Russian: Большая Советская Энциклопедия, or БСЭ; transliterated Bolshaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya) is one of the largest and most comprehensive encyclopedias in Russian, issued by the Soviet Encyclopedia state publisher.

There were three editions. The first edition of 65 volumes (65,000 entries, plus a supplementary volume about the Soviet Union) was published during 1926–1947, the chief editor being Otto Schmidt (until 1941). The second edition of 50 volumes (100,000 entries, plus a supplementary volume) was published in 1950–1958; chief editors: Sergei Vavilov (until 1951) and Boris Vvedenskiy (until 1969); two index volumes to this edition were published in 1960. The third edition of 1969–1978 contains 30 volumes (100,000 entries, plus an index volume issued in 1981. Volume 24 is in two books, one of them being a full-sized book about the USSR) --all with about 21 million words (Kister 365), and the chief editor being Alexander Prokhorov (since 1969).

The third edition was translated into English, beginning in 1973. Each volume was translated separately, requiring use of the index to locate specific items.

In 1957–1990 each year the Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was released, with up to date articles about the Soviet Union and all countries of the world.

The first online edition, an exact replica of text and graphics of the third (so-called Red) edition, was published by Rubricon.ru in 2000.

1 Greek edition
2 Other Soviet Encyclopedias
3 Trivia
4 Bibliography
5 External links

[edit] Greek edition

The third edition has also been translated and published into Greek in 34 volumes between 1977 and 1983. All articles that were related to Greece or Greek history, culture and society were expanded and hundreds of new ones were written especially for the Greek edition. Thus the encyclopaedia contains, for example, both the Russian entry on Greece as well as a much larger one prepared by Greek contributors.

There is an evident left point of view in several articles, certainly due to the political affiliation of the contributors.

Finally, a supplementary volume covering the 1980s has been published in 1989. It contains translated and original Greek articles which, sometimes, do not exist in the 34 volumes set.

[edit] Other Soviet Encyclopedias

Original title	English title	Volumes	Dates
Українська радянська енциклопедія	Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia	17	1959-1965
Беларуская савецкая энцыклапедыя	Byelorussian Soviet Encyclopedia	12	1969-1975
Ўзбек совет энциклопедияси	Uzbek Soviet Encyclopedia	14	1971-1980
Қазақ совет энциклопедиясы	Kazakh Soviet Encyclopedia	10	1972-1978
ქართული საბჭოთა ენციკლოპედია	Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia	12	1975-1987
Азәрбајҹан Совет Енсиклопедијасы	Azerbaijani Soviet Encyclopedia	10	1976-1987
Lietuviškoji tarybinė enciklopedija	Lithuanian Soviet Encyclopedia	10	1976-1985
Енчиклопедия советикэ молдовеняскэ	Moldavian Soviet Encyclopedia	8	1970-1981
Latvijas padomju enciklopēdija	Latvian Soviet Encyclopedia	11	1981-1988
Кыргыз Совет Энциклопедиясы	Kyrgyz Soviet Encyclopedia	6	1976-1980
Энциклопедияи советии тоҷик	Tajik Soviet Encyclopedia	8	1978-1988
Մեծ սովետական հանրագիտարան	Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia	13	1974-1987
Түркмен совет энциклопедиясы	Turkmen Soviet Encyclopedia	10	1974-1989
Eesti Nõukogude entsüklopeedia	Estonian Soviet Encyclopedia	8	1968-1976

[edit] Trivia

Following the fall of police chief Lavrentiy Beria in 1953 in the wake of Stalin's death, subscribers to the second edition were sent a new article on the Bering Strait, being instructed to cut out and destroy the article on Beria and to paste in the new article.^[1]

[edit] Bibliography

Great Soviet encyclopedia, ed. A. M. Prokhorov (New York: Macmillan, London: Collier Macmillan, 1974–1983) 31 volumes, three volumes of indexes. Translation of third Russian edition of Bol'shaya sovetskaya entsiklopediya
Kister, Kenneth. Kister's Best Encyclopedias. 2nd ed. (1994)