Education and Art in Soviet Russia/Document 33

DOCUMENT No. 33

Facts About the Activity of the Literary Publication Board,
Attached to the People's Commissariat on Education

On December 13th, 1917, at the session of the Literary Publication Board a committee was named to draft a decree order- ing the establishment of a Technical Board to take charge of state printing shops, including all those printing shops which had been nationalized after the October revolution. This committee was composed of representatives from the Literary Publication Board, from the Commissariat of Interior Printers' Trade Union and a committee of workers employed in state printing shops.

In February, 1918, owing to energetic activity of the Soviet and representatives of the printing trades, publishing business on a large scale was made possible. The State Commission on Education made up a list of Russian novelists, men, poets and critics whose works were declared a state monopoly for 5 years. This list includes names of over 50 Russian classics such as: Soloviev, M. Bakunin, V. Belinski, V. Garshin, A. Hertzen, N. Gogol, F. Dostoyevsky, A. Koltzov, M. Lermontov, Nekrasov, A. Pushkin, L. Tolstoi, I. Turgenev, A. Tchechov, and others.

July 4th, at Moscow, there was established a committee on Literature and Art. Among its members are the writer V. Bruisov and V. Grabar, the painter.

A committee was also formed to publish popular scientific books. This committee has two sections—political economy and natural science. The latter includes: Professors K. A. Timiriazov, A. K. Timiriazof, A. Michailov, Wolf, P. Walden, and others.

A number of brochures (original and translations) have been already published by the committee, the subjects being: astronomy, physics, meteorology, botany, pedagogy. As regards the publication of text-books the State Commission already, on Dec. 4th, 1917, created a special commission to take charge of the work,

A semi-annual appropriation of 12 million rubles has been granted to the Literary Publication Board. The appropriation for the second half year may reach 20 millions.