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Though I'm pretty much uniformly opposed to Communism in practice (I don't know enough about theory to comment), there are still a few things which the Soviet Union produced during Communism's heyday the passing of which is a tragedy which brings a tear to my eye.
One of these is the collapse of Mir Publishers, located in Moscow. I don't know how many outside Russia and the Indian subcontinent know of this publishing house, but the books they produced are now rare and completely invaluable today.
They were into scientific and technical publication, and by God, they were good at it. I still remember the thrill of finally "getting" a problem from some of their books during my high school days, from such greats as I.E. Irodov and S.S. Krotov. Even their other books are little gems of technical wisdom. All other books of theirs I have seen seem to come from a different era altogether, or a purity of thought and a love of the laws of the universe which seems completely untainted by the mundane considerations of daily life. It was pure - and I mean truly PURE - science and technology at its best. Even their application-oriented publications seem so utterly sublime when compared to the dumbed-down stuff being turned out today. The sort of confidence those Soviet authors had in their field seems to be unmatchable.
That is why, when I learnt that they had gone out of business, I felt really sad, as if something great had gone out of this world. I learnt this pretty recently - many of their titles are still available in the Indian market due to re-publication rights being given to Indian publishers. Even though they were formed by a command of the Soviet leadership, it seems they managed to attract the best talent of an entire country, probably an entire era, and distilled it and purified it and shone it till a single book from them is capable of inspiring a rich career.
There is, of course, the camaraderie which scientists and other lovers of knowledge feel for their kin irrespective of all boundaries, which is probably another reason why I feel sad at their passing.
If there is one thing I could have wished preserved from the Soviet wreck, it is probably this intellectual tradition. You don't get these sort of books nowadays, even if you're willing to pay exorbitant amounts - they simply don't exist! They were Spartan, lean, and made you mentally alert.
I realised that this is one outstanding contribution of the Soviets to the world, which is, alas, fast disappearing. I only happened to notice it because it was of my field. Maybe there were others which others had come in contact with? So I pose the question:
If there were one thing, one little gem, that you could save from the Communist wreck, what would it be?
One of these is the collapse of Mir Publishers, located in Moscow. I don't know how many outside Russia and the Indian subcontinent know of this publishing house, but the books they produced are now rare and completely invaluable today.
They were into scientific and technical publication, and by God, they were good at it. I still remember the thrill of finally "getting" a problem from some of their books during my high school days, from such greats as I.E. Irodov and S.S. Krotov. Even their other books are little gems of technical wisdom. All other books of theirs I have seen seem to come from a different era altogether, or a purity of thought and a love of the laws of the universe which seems completely untainted by the mundane considerations of daily life. It was pure - and I mean truly PURE - science and technology at its best. Even their application-oriented publications seem so utterly sublime when compared to the dumbed-down stuff being turned out today. The sort of confidence those Soviet authors had in their field seems to be unmatchable.
That is why, when I learnt that they had gone out of business, I felt really sad, as if something great had gone out of this world. I learnt this pretty recently - many of their titles are still available in the Indian market due to re-publication rights being given to Indian publishers. Even though they were formed by a command of the Soviet leadership, it seems they managed to attract the best talent of an entire country, probably an entire era, and distilled it and purified it and shone it till a single book from them is capable of inspiring a rich career.
There is, of course, the camaraderie which scientists and other lovers of knowledge feel for their kin irrespective of all boundaries, which is probably another reason why I feel sad at their passing.
If there is one thing I could have wished preserved from the Soviet wreck, it is probably this intellectual tradition. You don't get these sort of books nowadays, even if you're willing to pay exorbitant amounts - they simply don't exist! They were Spartan, lean, and made you mentally alert.
I realised that this is one outstanding contribution of the Soviets to the world, which is, alas, fast disappearing. I only happened to notice it because it was of my field. Maybe there were others which others had come in contact with? So I pose the question:
If there were one thing, one little gem, that you could save from the Communist wreck, what would it be?
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