Mir Publishers () was a major

publishing house Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

which continues to exist in modern

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It was established in 1946 by a decree of the

USSR Council of Ministers The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ˌɛsˌɛsˌɛsˈɛr), sometimes abbreviated as Sovmin or referred to as the ...

and has been headquartered in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

since then. It was completely state funded, which was the reason for the low prices of the books it published. Its scope was domestic and translated special and tutorial literature in various domains of science and engineering: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, agriculture, transport, energy, etc. Many Soviet scientists and engineers were its contributors. The staff provided translation from original Russian. In addition, during the Soviet times it was known for translated foreign scientific and popular science books as well as

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

. Many of Mir's books were and are used as textbooks for studies of science in many countries.Foreign trade, Issues 7-12
Ministerstvo vneshneĭ torgovli (U.S.S.R. Ministry of Foreign Trade), 1984, ''... Large orders for the books of the Mir Publishers were received from the Afghan, Indian, Mexican, English, French, Italian, Dutch and other firms. Foreign firms placed large orders for text-books, manuals and dictionaries ...''Indian book industry, Volume 30
Institute of Book Publishing, Federation of Indian Publishers, Sterling Publishers, 1984, ''... Various textbooks, teachnical manuals and aids brought out by Mir Publishers are becoming increasingly popular in India. Upon the request of Indian Book Industry, Vladimir Kartsev, D.Sc. (Tech.), Mir's director, tells about this Soviet publishing house's work ...''Directory of book trade in India
National Guide Books Syndicate, 1973, ''... Many of the titles already issued by the Mir Publishers have been accepted as textbooks and manuals at educational establishments in India and other countries ... textbooks for universities, technical schools and vocational schools; literature on the natural sciences and medicine, including textbooks for medical schools and schools for nurses; popular science and science fiction ...'' The publishing house survived after the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

and was eventually privatised and later expanded its scope by incorporating a number of state publishing houses: Kolos (Колос), Transport (Транспорт), Khimiya (Химия), Metallurgiya (Металлургия), Legprombitizdat (Легпромбытиздат), and Energoatomizdat (Энергоатомиздат). In 2008, the company faced a bankruptcy case. The case was closed by the Moscow Arbitral Court on June 2, 2009 because the publishing house had paid completely the debt to the creditors. ''Note'': its old domain, mir-publishers.net, is

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

Book series

English language

* Advances in Science and Technology in the USSR: Biology Series * Advances in Science and Technology in the USSR: Chemistry Series * Advances in Science and Technology in the USSR: Mathematics and Mechanics Series * Advances in Science and Technology in the USSR: Physics Series * Advances in Science and Technology in the USSR: Technology Series * Higher Mathematics Series * Little Mathematics Library * Science for EveryoneScience for Everyone (Mir Publishers) - Book Series List
publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 3 March 2021.

French language

* Science soviétique

Spanish language

* Ciencia Popular * Los Científicos a los Escolares (CE) * Física al Alcance de Todos * Lecciones Populares de Matemáticas

References

External links

Mir Books , Books from the Soviet Era

Online copies of books published by Mir Publishers
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

{{Authority control Publishing companies established in 1946 Publishing companies of the Soviet Union 1946 establishments in the Soviet Union