Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2014 number

In the historical and bibliological studies on the scientific book publishing in Siberia its printing component has been studied very fragmentary. Until the mid-XX century in the region there were no specialized printing enterprises for production of scientific journals and monographs. In 1957 when the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences (SB AS) of the USSR was established the then existing practice of publishing scientific literature in various printing houses of the Siberian cities did not meet the new development goals of science. The paper presents information from the documents dating to the 1950s-1960s, memoirs of the participants in the events that allow assessing the problems and difficulties associated with the creation of polygraphic base for the regional academic publishing during the formative period the Siberian branch history. Increased research activities, the need for prompt publication of their results forced the administration of the Siberian branch to take steps in order to create a temporary printing house and to place orders in the printing houses of Moscow and Siberian cities. Correspondence between the heads of the Siberian branch with the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Soviet Government demonstrates that the former were very persistent in getting permission to construct in Novosibirsk a specialized polygraphic enterprise that would meet the requirements of scientific book publishing being provided with the same equipment as the printing houses belonging to the “Nauka” Press in Moscow. The author introduces into scientific use the new archival documents and memoirs demonstrating difficulties faced by the constructors of the new printing house and describing how these difficulties were overcome. The leadership of the Siberian branch managed to defend its position during the confrontation with the local authorities, who tried to leave the printing house at their disposal. However under the conditions of centralized management of the publishing industry the right of ownership of the printing house after construction was transferred to the Publishing house “Nauka”, along with vesting the Siberian branch with a right to reconcile its production plans for scientific publications.