Vasilisa Yaviks is an intelligent search engine. tomorrow is already here! Great Russian Encyclopedia Great Russian Encyclopedia book version

Decor format: 60 × 90 1/8;
headset: Kudryashevskaya;
size: 9 × 10;
text in three columns;
Illustrated, full-color edition;
hard binding, compound binding (type No. 8), dark blue spine, beige main margin of the cover, ivory color with gold foil embossing; author of the binding design: Viktor Kuchmin

Great Russian Encyclopedia(abbreviated BRE) - universal encyclopedia in Russian. The publication consists of 35 numbered volumes and the “Russia” volume, and contains more than 80 thousand articles. The encyclopedia was published from 2004 to 2017 by the scientific publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia". Since 2016, there has been an online version of the encyclopedia.

Story

Background

In 1978, the last volume of the third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) was published. Until 1990 inclusive, the publishing house "Soviet Encyclopedia" every year published the "Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia", which published updated data for TSB articles. In 1991, the publishing house “Soviet Encyclopedia” was renamed the “Scientific Publishing House “Big Russian Encyclopedia””, although an encyclopedia with that name did not yet exist. In 1994, Alexander Gorkin became the director and editor-in-chief of the publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia", who tried to attract the attention of the country's leadership to the problems of the publishing house, which was then in a difficult financial situation.

BDT as an encyclopedia about Russia

On January 13, 1995, Russian President B.N. Yeltsin instructed the Government to provide for the publication of the Great Russian Encyclopedia in 1996-2001 in the Federal Book Publishing Program in Russia, as a presidential program. And on May 2, 1996, B. N. Yeltsin signed presidential decree No. 647 “On the publication of the Great Russian Encyclopedia.” According to this decree, the editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia was appointed academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nobel Prize winner in physics A. M. Prokhorov, who was the editor-in-chief of the third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, published from 1969 to 1978. The publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia" was provided with benefits for renting premises, and in federal budget In 1997, funding was provided for the editorial and publishing preparation of the first volume of the encyclopedia. Doctor of Geographical Sciences A.P. Gorkin became the executive editor of the new encyclopedia.

Under the name “Great Russian Encyclopedia,” the publishing house began to create not a universal encyclopedia following the example of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, but a 12-volume encyclopedia about Russia. A.P. Gorkin considered it as an analogue of national encyclopedias previously published in the USSR - Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia, Moldavian Soviet Encyclopedia, etc., but about Russian Federation. According to A.P. Gorkin, in 1999 he met with Russian Prime Minister V.V. Putin, to whom he told that “in Soviet times there was nothing Russian,” as this was considered chauvinism, but right now the publishing house is making a multi-volume encyclopedia about Russia; This concept for the publication of BRE received the approval of the Prime Minister and, after Putin became president, led to an increase in government funding for the publication.

While working on the first volume of the encyclopedia, many employees of the publishing house realized that the criteria for including information in such a “Russian” encyclopedia are unsystematic, illogical and exclude Russia from the world context. This was one of the reasons for the conflict between the work collective and the director and editor-in-chief of the publishing house A.P. Gorkin, who insisted on a multi-volume encyclopedia about Russia instead of the universal encyclopedia that the collective wanted to make. On March 19, 2001, five of Gorkin’s seven deputies wrote and handed him a letter in which it was proposed to separate the posts of director and editor-in-chief of the publishing house, and A.P. Gorkin to resign as director. The letter also said: “Given the awareness of the need to prepare a new universal publication that should replace TSB-3, no steps are being taken to find ways and means to put this idea on a practical footing. The essence of the matter does not change what was stated in Lately initiatives". Gorkin did not respond to the letter, and then on March 27, 2001, a meeting of the labor collective was held, where a majority of votes expressed no confidence in Gorkin as director.

Four deputy directors of the publishing house, as well as representatives of all scientific and branch editorial offices, editorial offices of biological dictionaries and reference books, literary control and cartography, sent a letter to Deputy Minister of Press Vladimir Grigoriev, in which they defended the need to publish a universal encyclopedia instead of the encyclopedia “Russia”, which he advocated Gorkin. And on April 19, 2001, Grigoriev was sent a draft of a universal “Great Russian Encyclopedia”, consisting of 30 volumes. The work was supposed to be completed in 7.5 years. On June 9, 2001, Deputy Minister of Press Vladimir Grigoriev introduced to the team a graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, who does not have an academic degree, the head of the scientific and church center “Orthodox Encyclopedia” Sergei Kravets as the new director and editor-in-chief of the publishing house instead of Alexander Gorkin.

Volume and content of the publication

K: Sites that appeared in 2016

Background

In 2010, there were reports in the media that, based on the Great Russian Encyclopedia, it was planned to open the Knowledge portal, which would be developed within the framework of state program"Information Society" on the basis of the scientific publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia". It was assumed that the portal would not have the concept of “article”, but instead there would be some kind of “information slot”. Each such “slot,” in addition to encyclopedic and dictionary information, was supposed to contain a number of structured materials: additional articles on certain aspects, school adapted versions, interactive maps, mathematical modeling, links to primary sources, three-dimensional models, as well as “discussion of the topic in the scientific community.” It was planned to create more than 100 thousand such “information slots”. Negotiations were held regarding the translation of the portal texts into English language and languages ​​of countries BRICS. It was assumed that access to the materials of the Knowledge portal would be paid; several different tariff plans were provided. The publishing house spent about 10 million rubles of its own funds to develop the portal, but there was not enough money to open the portal and it was not launched.

As a result, 50 academicians included in the scientific and editorial board of BDT sent to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin a letter in which they said that without financial assistance from the state the project would be closed. In addition, the academicians asked for assistance in “promoting the electronic portal “Knowledge” - an analogue of “ Wikipedia“,” which they valued at 670 million rubles.

In November 2014, the Ministry of Culture announced a tender for the creation of the BDT portal, in which the Great Russian Encyclopedia publishing house participated, but the winner was Modern Digital Technologies LLC from Yekaterinburg, which valued its services at 2.1 million rubles.

Electronic version of the Great Russian Encyclopedia

On April 1, 2016, a website was opened containing 12 thousand articles from published volumes of the Great Russian Encyclopedia. The site has a full-text search, a rubricator and a list of articles.

The Great Russian Encyclopedia publishing house promised to add new articles daily and increase their number to 45 thousand by the end of 2016. It was also promised that new articles would appear that were not in the book version of the encyclopedia, as well as bringing some of the existing articles up to date.

On August 25, 2016, a Government Order was signed on the creation of a working group on issues related to the creation of a “National scientific and educational interactive encyclopedic portal” based on the Great Russian Encyclopedia with the involvement of other Russian scientific encyclopedias.

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing the Great Russian Encyclopedia

– Prince Vasily arrived in Moscow yesterday. He’s going for an inspection, they told me,” the guest said.
“Yes, but, entre nous, [between us],” said the princess, “this is an excuse, he actually came to Count Kirill Vladimirovich, having learned that he was so bad.”
“However, ma chere, this is a nice thing,” said the count and, noticing that the eldest guest was not listening to him, he turned to the young ladies. – The policeman had a good figure, I imagine.
And he, imagining how the policeman waved his arms, laughed again with a sonorous and bassy laugh that shook his entire plump body, as people laugh who have always eaten well and especially drunk. “So, please, come and have dinner with us,” he said.

There was silence. The Countess looked at the guest, smiling pleasantly, however, without hiding the fact that she would not be at all upset now if the guest got up and left. The guest’s daughter was already straightening her dress, looking questioningly at her mother, when suddenly next room Several men's and women's feet were heard running towards the door, the crash of a chair being caught and knocked over, and a thirteen-year-old girl ran into the room, wrapping her short muslin skirt around something, and stopped in the middle of the room. It was obvious that she accidentally, with an uncalculated run, ran so far. At the same moment a student with a crimson collar, a guards officer, a fifteen-year-old girl and a fat, ruddy boy in a children's jacket appeared at the door.
The count jumped up and, swaying, spread his arms wide around the running girl.
- Oh, here she is! – he shouted laughing. - Birthday girl! Ma chere, birthday girl!
“Ma chere, il y a un temps pour tout, [Darling, there is time for everything,” said the countess, pretending to be stern. “You keep spoiling her, Elie,” she added to her husband.
“Bonjour, ma chere, je vous felicite, [Hello, my dear, I congratulate you,” said the guest. – Quelle delicuse enfant! “What a lovely child!” she added, turning to her mother.
A dark-eyed, big-mouthed, ugly, but lively girl, with her childish open shoulders, which, shrinking, moved in her bodice from fast running, with her black curls bunched back, thin bare arms and small legs in lace pantaloons and open shoes, I was at that sweet age when a girl is no longer a child, and a child is not yet a girl. Turning away from her father, she ran up to her mother and, not paying any attention to her stern remark, hid her flushed face in the lace of her mother’s mantilla and laughed. She was laughing at something, talking abruptly about a doll that she had taken out from under her skirt.
– See?... Doll... Mimi... See.
And Natasha could no longer speak (everything seemed funny to her). She fell on top of her mother and laughed so loudly and loudly that everyone, even the prim guest, laughed against their will.
- Well, go, go with your freak! - said the mother, feigning angrily pushing her daughter away. “This is my youngest,” she turned to the guest.
Natasha, taking her face away from her mother’s lace scarf for a minute, looked at her from below through tears of laughter and hid her face again.
The guest, forced to admire the family scene, considered it necessary to take some part in it.
“Tell me, my dear,” she said, turning to Natasha, “how do you feel about this Mimi?” Daughter, right?
Natasha did not like the tone of condescension to childish conversation with which the guest addressed her. She did not answer and looked at her guest seriously.
Meanwhile, all this young generation: Boris - an officer, the son of Princess Anna Mikhailovna, Nikolai - a student, the eldest son of the count, Sonya - the count's fifteen-year-old niece, and little Petrusha - the youngest son, all settled in the living room and, apparently, tried to keep within the boundaries of decency the animation and gaiety that still breathed from every feature of them. It was clear that there, in the back rooms, from where they all ran so quickly, they were having more fun conversations than here about city gossip, the weather and Comtesse Apraksine. [about Countess Apraksina.] Occasionally they glanced at each other and could hardly restrain themselves from laughing.
Two young men, a student and an officer, friends since childhood, were the same age and both were handsome, but did not look alike. Boris was a tall, fair-haired young man with regular, delicate features of a calm and handsome face; Nikolai was a short, curly-haired young man with an open expression on his face. On upper lip his black hair was already showing, and his whole face expressed impetuosity and enthusiasm.
Nikolai blushed as soon as he entered the living room. It was clear that he was searching and could not find anything to say; Boris, on the contrary, immediately found himself and told him calmly, jokingly, how he had known this Mimi doll as a young girl with an undamaged nose, how she had grown old in his memory at the age of five and how her head was cracked all over her skull. Having said this, he looked at Natasha. Natasha turned away from him, looked at her younger brother, who, with his eyes closed, was shaking with silent laughter, and, unable to hold on any longer, jumped and ran out of the room as quickly as her fast legs could carry her. Boris didn't laugh.
- You seemed to want to go too, maman? Do you need a carriage? – he said, turning to his mother with a smile.
“Yes, go, go, tell me to cook,” she said, pouring out.
Boris quietly walked out the door and followed Natasha, the fat boy angrily ran after them, as if annoyed at the frustration that had occurred in his studies.

Of the young people, not counting the countess's eldest daughter (who was four years older than her sister and already behaved like a grown-up) and the young lady's guest, Nikolai and Sonya's niece remained in the living room. Sonya was a thin, petite brunette with a soft gaze, shaded by long eyelashes, a thick black braid that wrapped around her head twice, and a yellowish tint to the skin on her face and especially on her bare, thin, but graceful, muscular arms and neck. With the smoothness of her movements, the softness and flexibility of her small limbs, and her somewhat cunning and reserved manner, she resembled a beautiful, but not yet fully formed kitten, which would become a lovely little cat. She apparently considered it decent to show participation in the general conversation with a smile; but against her will, from under her long thick eyelashes, she looked at her cousin [cousin] who was leaving for the army with such girlish passionate adoration that her smile could not deceive anyone for a moment, and it was clear that the cat sat down only to jump more energetically and play with your sauce as soon as they, like Boris and Natasha, get out of this living room.
“Yes, ma chere,” said the old count, turning to his guest and pointing to his Nicholas. - His friend Boris was promoted to officer, and out of friendship he does not want to lag behind him; he leaves both the university and me as an old man: he goes into military service, ma chere. And his place in the archive was ready, and that was it. Is that friendship? - said the count questioningly.
“But they say war has been declared,” said the guest.
“They’ve been saying this for a long time,” said the count. “They’ll talk and talk again and leave it at that.” Ma chere, that’s friendship! - he repeated. - He is going to the hussars.
The guest, not knowing what to say, shook her head.
“Not out of friendship at all,” answered Nikolai, flushing and making excuses as if from a shameful slander against him. – Not friendship at all, but I just feel a calling to military service.
He looked back at his cousin and the guest young lady: both looked at him with a smile of approval.
“Today, Schubert, colonel of the Pavlograd Hussar Regiment, is dining with us. He was on vacation here and takes it with him. What to do? - said the count, shrugging his shoulders and speaking jokingly about the matter, which apparently cost him a lot of grief.
“I already told you, daddy,” said the son, “that if you don’t want to let me go, I’ll stay.” But I know that I am not fit for anything except military service; “I’m not a diplomat, not an official, I don’t know how to hide what I feel,” he said, still looking with the coquetry of beautiful youth at Sonya and the guest young lady.
The cat, glaring at him with her eyes, seemed every second ready to play and show all her cat nature.
- Well, well, okay! - said the old count, - everything is getting hot. Bonaparte turned everyone’s heads; everyone thinks how he got from lieutenant to emperor. Well, God willing,” he added, not noticing the guest’s mocking smile.
The big ones started talking about Bonaparte. Julie, Karagina’s daughter, turned to young Rostov:
– What a pity that you weren’t at the Arkharovs’ on Thursday. “I was bored without you,” she said, smiling tenderly at him.
The flattered young man with a flirtatious smile of youth moved closer to her and entered into a separate conversation with the smiling Julie, not noticing at all that this involuntary smile of his was cutting the heart of the blushing and feignedly smiling Sonya with a knife of jealousy. “In the middle of the conversation, he looked back at her. Sonya looked at him passionately and embitteredly and, barely holding back the tears in her eyes and a feigned smile on her lips, she stood up and left the room. All Nikolai's animation disappeared. He waited for the first break in the conversation and with an upset face left the room to look for Sonya.
– How the secrets of all these young people are sewn with white thread! - said Anna Mikhailovna, pointing to Nikolai coming out. “Cousinage dangereux voisinage,” she added.
“Yes,” said the countess, after the ray of sunshine that had penetrated into the living room with this young generation had disappeared, and as if answering a question that no one had asked her, but which constantly occupied her. - How much suffering, how much anxiety has been endured in order to now rejoice in them! And now, really, there is more fear than joy. You're still afraid, you're still afraid! This is precisely the age at which there are so many dangers for both girls and boys.
“Everything depends on upbringing,” said the guest.
“Yes, your truth,” continued the Countess. “Until now, thank God, I have been a friend of my children and enjoy their complete trust,” said the countess, repeating the misconception of many parents who believe that their children have no secrets from them. “I know that I will always be the first confidente [confidant] of my daughters, and that Nikolenka, due to her ardent character, if she plays naughty (a boy cannot live without this), then everything is not like these St. Petersburg gentlemen.
“Yes, nice, nice guys,” confirmed the count, who always resolved issues that were confusing to him by finding everything nice. - Come on, I want to become a hussar! Yes, that's what you want, ma chere!
“What a sweet creature your little one is,” said the guest. - Gunpowder!
“Yes, gunpowder,” said the count. - It hit me! And what a voice: even though it’s my daughter, I’ll tell the truth, she will be a singer, Salomoni is different. We hired an Italian to teach her.
- Is not it too early? They say it is harmful for your voice to study at this time.
- Oh, no, it’s so early! - said the count. - How did our mothers get married at twelve thirteen?
- She’s already in love with Boris! What? - said the countess, smiling quietly, looking at Boris’s mother, and, apparently answering the thought that had always occupied her, she continued. - Well, you see, if I had kept her strictly, I would have forbidden her... God knows what they would have done on the sly (the countess meant: they would have kissed), and now I know every word she says. She will come running in the evening and tell me everything. Maybe I'm spoiling her; but, really, this seems to be better. I kept the eldest strictly.
“Yes, I was brought up completely differently,” said the eldest, beautiful Countess Vera, smiling.
But a smile did not grace Vera’s face, as usually happens; on the contrary, her face became unnatural and therefore unpleasant.
The eldest, Vera, was good, she was not stupid, she studied well, she was well brought up, her voice was pleasant, what she said was fair and appropriate; but, strangely, everyone, both the guest and the countess, looked back at her, as if they were surprised why she said this, and felt awkward.
“They always play tricks with older children, they want to do something extraordinary,” said the guest.
- To be honest, ma chere! The Countess was playing tricks with Vera,” said the Count. - Well, oh well! Still, she turned out nice,” he added, winking approvingly at Vera.
The guests got up and left, promising to come for dinner.
- What a manner! They were already sitting, sitting! - said the countess, ushering the guests out.

When Natasha left the living room and ran, she only reached the flower shop. She stopped in this room, listening to the conversation in the living room and waiting for Boris to come out. She was already beginning to get impatient and, stamping her foot, was about to cry because he was not walking now, when she heard the quiet, not fast, decent steps of a young man.
Natasha quickly rushed between the flower pots and hid.
Boris stopped in the middle of the room, looked around, brushed specks from his uniform sleeve with his hand and walked up to the mirror, looking at his Beautiful face. Natasha, having become quiet, looked out from her ambush, waiting for what he would do. He stood in front of the mirror for a while, smiled and went to the exit door. Natasha wanted to call out to him, but then changed her mind. “Let him search,” she told herself. Boris had just left when a flushed Sonya emerged from another door, whispering something angrily through her tears. Natasha restrained herself from her first move to run out to her and remained in her ambush, as if under an invisible cap, looking out for what was happening in the world. She experienced a special new pleasure. Sonya whispered something and looked back at the living room door. Nikolai came out of the door.
- Sonya! What happened to you? Is this possible? - Nikolai said, running up to her.
- Nothing, nothing, leave me! – Sonya began to sob.
- No, I know what.
- Well, you know, that’s great, and go to her.
- Sooo! One word! Is it possible to torture me and yourself like this because of a fantasy? - Nikolai said, taking her hand.
Sonya did not pull his hands away and stopped crying.
Natasha, without moving or breathing, looked out with shining heads from her ambush. "What will happen now"? she thought.
- Sonya! I don't need the whole world! “You alone are everything to me,” Nikolai said. - I'll prove it to you.
“I don’t like it when you talk like that.”
- Well, I won’t, I’m sorry, Sonya! “He pulled her towards him and kissed her.
“Oh, how good!” thought Natasha, and when Sonya and Nikolai left the room, she followed them and called Boris to her.
“Boris, come here,” she said with a significant and cunning look. – I need to tell you one thing. Here, here,” she said and led him into the flower shop to the place between the tubs where she was hidden. Boris, smiling, followed her.
– What is this one thing? - he asked.
She was embarrassed, looked around her and, seeing her doll abandoned on the tub, took it in her hands.
“Kiss the doll,” she said.
Boris looked into her lively face with an attentive, affectionate gaze and did not answer.
- You do not want? Well, come here,” she said and went deeper into the flowers and threw the doll. - Closer, closer! - she whispered. She caught the officer's cuffs with her hands, and solemnity and fear were visible in her reddened face.
- Do you want to kiss me? – she whispered barely audibly, looking at him from under her brows, smiling and almost crying with excitement.
Boris blushed.
- How funny you are! - he said, bending over to her, blushing even more, but doing nothing and waiting.
She suddenly jumped up on the tub so that she stood taller than him, hugged him with both arms so that her thin bare arms bent above his neck and, throwing her hair back with a movement of her head, kissed him right on the lips.
She slipped between the pots to the other side of the flowers and, lowering her head, stopped.
“Natasha,” he said, “you know that I love you, but...
-Are you in love with me? – Natasha interrupted him.
- Yes, I’m in love, but please, let’s not do what we’re doing now... Four more years... Then I’ll ask for your hand.
Natasha thought.
“Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen...” she said, counting with her thin fingers. - Fine! So it's over?
And a smile of joy and peace lit up her lively face.
- It's over! - said Boris.
- Forever? - said the girl. - Until death?
And, taking his arm, with a happy face, she quietly walked next to him into the sofa.

The countess was so tired of the visits that she did not order to receive anyone else, and the doorman was only ordered to invite everyone who would still come with congratulations to eat. The Countess wanted to talk privately with her childhood friend, Princess Anna Mikhailovna, whom she had not seen well since her arrival from St. Petersburg. Anna Mikhailovna, with her tear-stained and pleasant face, moved closer to the countess’s chair.
“I’ll be completely frank with you,” said Anna Mikhailovna. – There are very few of us left, old friends! This is why I value your friendship so much.
Anna Mikhailovna looked at Vera and stopped. The Countess shook hands with her friend.
“Vera,” said the countess, addressing her eldest daughter, obviously unloved. - How come you have no idea about anything? Don't you feel like you're out of place here? Go to your sisters, or...
Beautiful Vera smiled contemptuously, apparently not feeling the slightest insult.
“If you had told me long ago, mamma, I would have left immediately,” she said, and went to her room.
But, passing by the sofa, she noticed that there were two couples sitting symmetrically at two windows. She stopped and smiled contemptuously. Sonya sat close to Nikolai, who was copying out poems for her that he had written for the first time. Boris and Natasha were sitting at another window and fell silent when Vera entered. Sonya and Natasha looked at Vera with guilty and happy faces.
It was fun and touching to look at these girls in love, but the sight of them, obviously, did not arouse a pleasant feeling in Vera.
“How many times have I asked you,” she said, “not to take my things, you have your own room.”
She took the inkwell from Nikolai.
“Now, now,” he said, wetting his pen.
“You know how to do everything at the wrong time,” said Vera. “Then they ran into the living room, so everyone felt ashamed of you.”
Despite the fact that, or precisely because, what she said was completely fair, no one answered her, and all four only looked at each other. She lingered in the room with the inkwell in her hand.
- And what secrets could there be at your age between Natasha and Boris and between you - they’re all just nonsense!
- Well, what do you care, Vera? – Natasha said intercedingly in a quiet voice.
She, apparently, was even more kind and affectionate to everyone than always that day.
“Very stupid,” said Vera, “I’m ashamed of you.” What are the secrets?...
- Everyone has their own secrets. We won’t touch you and Berg,” Natasha said, getting excited.
“I think you won’t touch me,” said Vera, “because there can never be anything bad in my actions.” But I’ll tell mommy how you treat Boris.
“Natalya Ilyinishna treats me very well,” said Boris. “I can't complain,” he said.

If state support is not urgently provided to the publishing house "Big Russian Encyclopedia", this could lead to the dismissal of the publishing house's employees and the suspension of the release of subsequent volumes of the fundamental work published over the past ten years. To support the project for three years, BDT experts expect to receive 670 million rubles.

When I was a schoolboy, I was fascinated by the blue volumes of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (hereinafter - TSB) in our school library. It was the second edition of TSB from the 1950s, and there I sought out and read with avid biographies of great historical figures. They were written terribly, in such impossible clerical language, but the work contained at least some facts about little-known popes, Western European kings, etc. At home, the only encyclopedias I had at that time (mid-1990s) were the one-volume Great Soviet Dictionary (green, 1980 edition) and the three-volume Soviet dictionary in a black cover, published shortly after Stalin’s death, in 1954-1956. - It seemed like a great rarity to me then. The Internet was not so widely developed then, especially in the provinces. In my second year at the institute, I already bought myself disks with the third edition of TSB from the 1970s, but I only used them for a few years - now they are gathering dust in a drawer.

At that time, popular disks with the encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius were still in use - a kind of analogue of Wikipedia, which was updated every year. Then I bought myself CDs with Encyclopedic dictionary Brockhaus and Efron and some others. In the mid-90s, buying all 86 volumes of the Brockhaus Dictionary was my dream. A book catalog from the Terra publishing house just arrived at our home by mail, where a reprint of this dictionary was advertised in every possible way. In Terra I bought the small Brockhaus (4 volumes) and V.I.’s Explanatory Dictionary. Dalia.

I managed to buy a separate one, the so-called. the “introductory” volume of the Great Russian Encyclopedia (hereinafter referred to as BRE), dedicated to Russia as a whole; I didn’t even bother with the entire encyclopedia due to 1) its high cost, 2) due to the ever-decreasing space for books in my home library, which were in ever-increasing quantities, 3) due to the uncertainty of the schedule for the entire publication. By the way, a similar separate volume about Russia was also in the Brockhaus dictionary at the end of the 19th century - in 2001 I bought a reprint version of it from 1991.

Somewhere from 2007-2008. Wikipedia in everyday use began to displace almost all other encyclopedias, and electronic copies of three editions of TSB, and Brockhaus, and all kinds of dictionaries from different eras and countries began to appear en masse on the Internet. Spending money on something that can be viewed on a computer much faster and more conveniently, found on the Internet, and that does not take up so much space at home has become pointless. Still, encyclopedias are not fiction books, which are much more pleasant to read in paper form.

And so, I read the news that yesterday academicians who are members of the scientific and editorial council of the Great Russian Encyclopedia asked President Vladimir Putin for government financial support for the project. By the way, it was under him that the publication of this project began. Putin’s address on July 7, 2004 to the readers of the BDT in the volume dedicated to Russia contains the following words: “I hope that the Great Russian Encyclopedia, which is based on unique material, will be in demand by a wide readership.” If you look at the list of members of the scientific and editorial board of BDT in the mentioned 2004 volume, you can see how many of them are no longer alive: S.S. Averintseva, V.I. Arnold, M.L. Gasparova, V.L. Ginzburg, E.P. Krugliakova, A.A. Fursenko and others. The Russian Academy of Sciences itself does not exist in its previous form, but there is only a club of scientists, FANO and institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the number of which they want to reduce and the activities of their employees to optimize.

In the same address, Putin spoke about the rich encyclopedic tradition in our country and, it is clear that the BRE project was conceived as an unspoken “fourth edition” of the BSE, continuing the Soviet tradition of publishing fundamental multi-volume works in which the ruling leader was glorified and his historical era was captured in all the solemn officialdom. However, in terms of release time, the current BSE has already surpassed both the second and third editions of the BSE (the publication of both took 9 years). Only the first edition of the TSB took longer to be published - 21 years - but we must understand that it was an extremely difficult time - 1926-1947. - which included, among other things, the years of the Great Patriotic War. Now there is no war, and the pace of work and level of funding are inferior to Soviet times.

The situation with BRE is in many ways idiotic and ridiculous. In the era of the Internet and digital technologies, a period of ten years is a very long time. During this time, important changes took place in almost all branches of science. And so, nevertheless, this project is being published on paper, and even the already published volumes, as far as I know, are still not posted on the Internet in the public domain, that is, it is extremely difficult to call this project educational. All this takes too long, is very expensive, looks archaic and ends up as inaccessible waste paper that no one needs. The question is: does this publication make any sense at all? Well, apart from the symbolic type, Stalin and Brezhnev had their own BSE, which means that Putin should also have his own BSE!

The circulations of TSB and BRE are also incomparable. Circulation of the third edition of the TSB in 30 volumes, 1969-1978. amounted to about 630 thousand copies (which is on average 8-12 times more than the first edition and 2-2.5 times more than the second). The circulation of BRE, published since 2004, ranges from 25 to 60 thousand copies. It gets even more interesting with the number of volumes. Currently, the introductory volume “Russia” (2004) and 24 numbered volumes of the encyclopedia have been published. According to Wikipedia, in the output of all volumes up to and including the 21st volume it was indicated “In 30 volumes”, starting from the 22nd volume it is indicated “In 35 volumes.” At the same time, the portal Pro-books.ru in a publication from June 17, 2014 notes that with additional government support, the BDT publishing house is ready to release “the remaining 12 volumes” not in 4 years, as usual, but in 3. Moreover, 124 million rubles will be required from the ministry for this matter. In parallel with this, BDT plans to fill the Knowledge portal. One more question: if 24 volumes have already been published, then plus 12 more - does this amount to 36, not 35 volumes? That is, will it appear from some 30th volume instead of the inscription “in 35 volumes.” the inscription - "40 tons"? In a word, the publication has been delayed to the point of impossibility and, God grant, that by the time the final volumes are released, the remaining members of the 2004 editorial board will not die.

Yesterday's publication on Pro-books.ru states that the absence Money is fraught with the dismissal of some of the publishing house’s employees and the suspension of the release of subsequent volumes of fundamental work. The cause of the financial crisis was a notification from the Ministry of Culture that this year purchases of BRE for school libraries could be significantly reduced or even stopped altogether (!). Previously, budget purchases brought the publishing house 100 million rubles a year, and allowed the publication of three new volumes of BRE during the specified period.

50 academicians of the scientific and editorial council of the BDT sent a letter to Vladimir Putin, explaining that without financial assistance from the state, the project will be closed. State support is also being asked for the academic electronic encyclopedia “Knowledge,” Izvestia reports. The publishing house allocated 10 million rubles of its own funds for the development of the portal, but there was no longer enough money to launch the resource. To support the project for three years, BDT experts expect to receive 670 million rubles.

The executive secretary of the BDT publishing house, Sergei Kravets, says that government procurement is the main source of income for the publishing house. “If the Ministry of Culture stops purchasing publications, then BDT will have to dissolve the editorial office. There is only enough money left from the previous government contract to cover workers’ salaries for May-June; the publishing house cannot continue to operate further,” says the BDT representative.

According to financial statements company, its annual revenue in 2009-2012 was about 130-140 million rubles; net profit until 2012 exceeded 3 million rubles, and in 2012 - 558 thousand rubles. Last year, the Ministry of Culture already reduced the volume of purchases of the encyclopedia: instead of 50 thousand Russian libraries, only 17.5 thousand received new volumes of the publication. At the last meeting of the Ministry of Culture, Deputy Minister Grigory Ivliev announced that the department will continue purchasing the paper version of the encyclopedia only after the BDT launches the electronic version.

“The motivation of the Ministry of Culture is clear: no one needs a paper encyclopedia and it is necessary to make an electronic one. We are not against this, we even developed a concept. But now we are talking about completing its publication in paper and providing libraries with the missing volumes,” Kravets, in turn, explained.

In connection with all of the above, I have other questions: is BRE needed in this form at all? And if so, who needs it? Putin? Academics? To whom? Because it is practically inaccessible and of little interest to the general reader, besides, everyone knows how to use Wikipedia (in it current changes appear immediately). And experts will prefer to use the latter scientific publications on the topic, but not the dictionary, which has been published for more than 10 years. Is it necessary to end the publication of this disastrous publication? Or maybe it’s better to focus on creating a universal Russian scientific encyclopedia along the lines of Wikipedia, but which will be edited and updated only by researchers? Or maybe Wikipedia is quite enough, but with these millions of rubles it’s better to finally publish an academic Complete collection works of the same A.S. Pushkin in 20 volumes, which has been published by the Pushkin House since 1999, and so far less than 10 volumes have been published...

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