It is generally agreed that progress in the liquidation of illiteracy and gigantic strides in the printing of books are among the proudest achievements of the Soviet regime. Statistics of book production indicate that the USSR is at the present time among the world's largest book publishers. The achievements, however, have not been entirely Soviet. A very successful struggle against illiteracy had been waged long before 1917 both by government-backed and private organizations. Yet few scholars seem to be aware of the fact that in the production of books the otherwise backward Imperial Russia was one of the world's most advanced countries. Already at the end of the eighteenth century the Russian output was approximately one title every day—a very considerable figure for that period. 1 On the eve of the First World War Russia produced annually twenty times as many titles as she did half a century earlier, after the abolition of serfdom. By 1913 Russia was the second largest producer of books in the world, ranking close to Germany in number of titles and equaling the total of Great Britain, France, and the United States combined. Spectacular progress had also been achieved by Imperial Russia in the dissemination of books. In 1848 the printings of all books combined totaled 766,000 copies. The figure for 1913 was 89,-ΙΟΟ, ΟΟΟ. 2