Small Soviet Encyclopedia

The Small Soviet Encyclopedia (Малая Советская Энциклопедия) was a general encyclopedia published in the Soviet Union. The encyclopedia was published in three editions:

See also

Great Soviet Encyclopedia

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (GSE) (Russian: Большая советская энциклопедия, or БСЭ Bolshaya sovetskaya entsiklopediya) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias. published by the Soviet state from 1926 to 1990, and again since 2002 (under the name Bolshaya Rossiyskaya entsiklopediya or Great Russian Encyclopedia).

Origins

The idea of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia emerged in 1923 on the initiative of Otto Schmidt, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In early 1924 Schmidt worked with a group which included Mikhail Pokrovsky, (rector of the Institute of Red Professors), Nikolai Meshcheryakov (Head of Gosizdat, the State Publishing House), Valery Bryusov (poet), Veniamin Kagan (mathematician) and Konstantin Kuzminsky to draw up a proposal which was agreed by the in April 1924. Also involved was Anatoly Lunacharsky, Commissar of Enlightenment (Narkompros), who had previously been involved with a proposal by Alexander Bogdanov and Maxim Gorky to produce a Workers' Encyclopedia.