The role of "Elm" printing house in the publishing of scientific books in 40-50s of the XX century

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The role of “Elm” printing house in the publishing of scientific books in 40-50s of the XX century

Balayeva Ellada Mamed

Employee of the Department of Library Science and Publishing

Baku State University

Abstract

Scientific activity arises from the practical activity of people and, as it develops, begins to precede experience in the formation of new objects. Today science has become a universal object of many fields of activity. This is due to the special role that science plays in modern civilization. Science, which in the twentieth century revolutionized material production and many other areas of human activity, as well as the nature of technological progress, led to a new quality of life in the developed countries of the West and East. In general, the formation of interaction between nature and society at a new qualitative level is associated precisely with the development of science. Science today is a complex and contradictory object in terms of its existence and development. This applies to both the historical development of science (diachronic aspect) and its current state (synchronic aspect). Science, being a purposeful, multilateral, structured sphere of activity, has a specific goal, subject, means of action. This article is devoted to the formation and activities of the publishing house “Elm” in the first years of its existence. The general system of book publishing in Azerbaijan in the post-war years has been studied, and the place of the “Elm” publishing house has been determined in this system. A thematic and typological analysis of the book product formed as a result of the publishing house's activities showed that the main task of the “Elm” publishing house was not only to print the necessary products, but also to provide them for the service of science. Various statistical indicators and facts were used to substantiate the role of the publishing house in the development ofprinted books.

Key words: “Elm”publishing house, publishing system, scientific book, scientific information, book type.

Балаєва Еллада Мамед

Роль видавництва «Елм» у системі видань наукових книг у 40-50-х рр. ХХ століття

Анотація

publishing house elm post-war

Наукова діяльність виникає з практичної діяльності людей та в міру свого розвитку починає передувати досвіду у формуванні нових об'єктів. Сьогодні наука стала універсальним об'єктом багатьох сфер діяльності. Це пов'язано з тією особливою роллю, яку наука відіграє в сучасній цивілізації. Наука, яка у ХХ столітті зробила революцію у сфері матеріального виробництва та в багатьох інших сферах людської діяльності, а також у природі технічного прогресу, привела до нової якості життя в розвинених країнах Заходу і Сходу. Загалом формування взаємодії природи й суспільства на новому, якісному рівні пов'язане саме з розвитком науки. Сьогодні наука - складний і суперечливий об'єкт із позиції його існування йрозвитку. Це стосується як історичного розвитку науки (діахронічний аспект), так і її поточного стану (синхронічний аспект). Наука, як цілеспрямована, багатостороння, структурована сфера діяльності, має конкретну мету, предмет, засоби дії. Статтю присвячено становленню та діяльності видавничого дому «Елм» у перші роки його існування. Вивчено загальну систему книговидання в Азербайджані в післявоєнні роки та визначено місце видавництва «Елм» у цій системі. Тематико-типологічний аналіз книжкового продукту, сформованого в результаті діяльності зазначеного видавництва, свідчить про те, що головним завданням видавництва «Елм» був не тільки друк необхідної продукції, а й реалізація її на користь науки. Для обґрунтування ролі видавництва в розвитку книжкової друкованої продукції використано різні статистичні показники та факти.

Ключові слова: видавництво «Елм», видавнича система, наукова книга, наукова інформація, тип книги.

Introduction

The scientific activity arises from the practical activity of people and, as it develops, it begins to outstrip the experience of forming new objects. Science becomes an organic element of a wider reality, culture, and is understood as the experience of human's mastery of the world and adaptation to it, as a set of all methods and consequences of human interaction with the surrounding reality.

The emergence of new concepts in the world of modern science (fractal, bifurcation, intersection, periodicity, gravity, space) has led to questions that allow us to draw general conclusions about the behavior of complex systems. Research on these issues has formed new arrays of scientific information and made the publication of scientific books containing scientific information an important problem, especially in Azerbaijan.

The problem of publishing scientific information in Azerbaijan became more acute in the second half of the 20th century. During these years there were set new tasks in the development of printing and publishing, in the country that won the war. Due to the war, the number of books published in the country has decreased, and their circulation has dropped significantly. For example, in 1940, 462,2 million copies of 45,8 thousand book titles were published in the USSR. In 1954, these figures dropped to 298 million copies and 184 000 titles, respectively [4, p. 154].

The shortcomings of accounting and publishing works in printing houses, failure to fulfill the book publishing plan contributed to the emergence of chaos, unreasonable delays and redirection of the allocated funds to other purposes. In order to solve the mentioned problems, to eliminate shortcomings in the artistic and printing design of books, and to ensure the correct calculation of the cost of book products and the correct organization of the sale of books, there were taken some important decisions. Some of them include the following: July 1945 - “On book printing”, November 28, 1946 - “On measures for the development of the printing industry and publishing in the Azerbaijan SSR”, August 2, 1948 - “On improving the book trade in the Azerbaijan SSR”, May 25, 1950 - “On measures to improve the book trade in the countryside”, 10 December 1958 - “On the publication of unnecessarily expensive books”, and others.

The results of these measures were demonstrated in an increase in the number of published books. If in 1940 there were published 1 141 000 books in the country, in 1950 this number decreased to 7 957 copies out of 1 030 book titles. In 1959, books were being published with a circulation of 10 286 000 copies and 1 144 titles, respectively. In the Azerbaijani language, 988 titles of books were published in the amount of 7 890 copies [6, p. 130-131].

It is inexpedient to explain the development of book publishing only by quantitative growth. After the war, the titles expanded significantly. This was explained not only by the war, but also by the general level of economic, political and cultural development of the country [4, p. 160]. If in 1950 socio-political literature was in the first place with 288 books, in 1959 this number decreased to 244, giving way to literary criticism and fiction (see table 1).

Table 1. Books in the country, 1950-1959, publication content

* The table was compiled by the author based on the analysis of reports [6, p. 132-133]

Although there was an increase in book publishing in 1950, in 1955 it declined. 24% of the literature published in 1959 accounted for literature and fiction, and 76% for literature containing technical and industrial information on mechanical engineering, industry, transport and household economics, socio-political sciences, agriculture and culture. In addition, 70% of the literature published in 1959 was in the Azerbaijani language, and 80% of these books contained scientific information.

Main body

The publication of scientific literature in Azerbaijan was supported by the publishing activities of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. Until 1939, this activity was carried out by a branch of the Scientific Medical Society. In 1939, this work began to be carried out in the Azerbaijan branch of the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences [3, p. 205]. With the creation of the “Elm” Publishing House in 1945, the publication of scientific literature began to be carried out in a centralized and more coordinated manner. The publishing house operating under the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan mainly began to publish monographs, scientific collections, dictionaries (terminological, bilingual and multilingual), multivolume works of classics, mass scientific booklets, scientific journals, bibliographic literature in various fields of science [7]. This was the first and so far the only publishing house in Azerbaijan specializing in the publication of scientific literature [5, p. 13].

The publishing house, which has published many scientific journals and books since its foundation, continues to publish 14 scientific journals up to this day. The “Reports of ANAS” published since 1945 contain the results of original scientific research of full members (academicians), corresponding members and foreign members of ANAS, which have not been published anywhere before [7].

In the first years of its existence, namely in 1945-1959, the printing house published about 50 titles of literature. Thus, in 1947 “Nizami Ganjavi (Collection of Articles)” were published, in 1949 - the 484-page epic “Koroglu”, compiled by M.G. Takhmasib, as well as the second volume of “Works” by Muhammad Fizuli, translation of “Capital” by Karl Marx into Azerbaijani (the first volume was published).

In 1950, the printing house published the second volume of the “Collection of Azerbaijani Art” and the almanac “Art”, in 1951 - A. Bakikhanov's work “Gulustani-Iram”, “Monuments of Azerbaijani architecture” by Bretansky, the second volume of “Azerbaijani material culture”. The third volume was published in 1953. Later, there were published the following books: 1953 - A. Gaziev's “People's Artist Azim Azimzade”, 1954 - the seventh volume of the “Works of the Institute of Literature and Language”, 1955 - the work of K. Talibzade “Abbas Sahkhat”, 1956 - the work of F. Kasumzade “History of Azerbaijani Literature XIX century”, A. Mirakhmedov's work “Abdulla Shaig”, “Musical Dictionary” by Afrasiyab Badalbeyli, “Harmful scoops of Azerbaijan and the fight against them” by S. Veliyev, “People's poet Samed Vurgun”, 1957 - the third volume of the three-volume “History Azerbaijani literature”, M. Abdiev's work “Salinization of the lands of the Shirvan plain and measures to combat it”, the work of M.S. Shiraliyev “Baku dialects”, the work of H. Alimirzoev “From the history of collectivization of agriculture in Azerbaijan (1930-1934)”, the work of G. Aliyev “Turkey at the Lausanne conference”, “Selected works” M. Fuzuli (1958, 3 volumes), the work of G. Arasly “The Great Azerbaijani Poet Fizuli”, the first issue of the “Guide to the Museum Exposition”, the first volume of the three-volume book of “History of Azerbaijan”, the work of M. Guluzade “Nizami Ganjavi”, the work “Majmaul Khavas”, the work of A.M. Demirchizade “Ways of development of the Azerbaijani literary language”, I.G. Narimanov's “Archaeological monuments of Ganjachai region” (1959), “Archaeological excavations ofKultepe” by O. Khabibullayev, “Archaeological monuments ofWestern Azerbaijan at the beginning of the Bronze and early Iron ages” by J.A. Khalilov, the work of B.A. Akhundov “Baku oil industry before the revolution: monopoly capitalism”, VII volume of the almanac “Art of Azerbaijan”, reprint of the epic “Koroglu”. Additional titles included: the work of M.J. Javanshir “History of Karabakh”, 1-6 issues ofthe “Azerbaijan Chemical Journal”, 1960 - “Essays on Azerbaijani Archeology” by T.E. Bunyatov, the second volume of the “History of Azerbaijani Literature” of 3 volumes, the first of six volumes ofthe “Works of Samed Vurgun” (compiled by M. Huseyn), “Hydrological features of the rivers and lakes of the Azerbaijan SSR” by S. Rustamov, the first part of the two-part “Grammar of the Azerbaijani language”, the work of Z. Geyushov “Ethical views of the Azerbaijani enlighteners: the second half of the 19th century”, the work of I. Aliyev “History of Media”, the work of F.M. Aliyev “Cities of Northern Azerbaijan”.

The experience of the publishing house shows that it also published literature in a foreign language. Thus, in 1952 there was published a work by A.A. Babaeva “Social motives of modern Turkish drama”, in Russian with a circulation of 1 470 copies.

In the early years, the activity of a scientific publishing house was characterized by the release of various types of publications. First of all, it should be noted that the division of books into various types is based on the purpose of the publication and the target audience. The latter means that literature is published for a specific group of readers. The basis of this division is the age, social status and profession of the reader. Each type of literature, classified by content, combines several types in accordance with the goals and objectives of choosing a readership [1, p. 290].

Book publications are divided into types depending on the purpose and objectives of choosing the readership, the function they perform, the amount and nature of the information, the content of the publication, the design and form of publication, etc. There are the following types of books:

scientific literature or scientific books;

educational literature or textbooks for all types of education;

production and educational literature or production and information books;

reference and information literature;

official nonfiction literature;

popular science literature [1, p. 292].

Non-fiction, which occupies an important place among the types of books, is the first type of book to appear in history. The overwhelming majority of scientific literature is published in the form of collections of works by outstanding scientists, multivolume works, selected works, individual works, collections. Collections of works, selected works are published in the form of scientific publications. It should also be noted that collections with a complex structure, that is, in selected works, especially in academic publications, reflect all the literary and scientific heritage of a writer, poet, scientist, even variants of his works, letters on various topics, etc. [1, p. 367]. Books published by academic publishing houses are sometimes mistakenly called academic publications [2, p. 21].

Thus, a typological analysis of the publications issued by the publishing house in 1945-1959 shows that there were published 34 monographs, 4 works of art, 1 journal, 1 collection, 1 almanac, 6 scientific publications, 1 collection of articles, and 2 questionnaires (see table 2).

Table 2. The volume of publishing activity

* The table was compiled by the author

By the type of content there were published the following number of monographs on different subjects: 1 monograph on social sciences, 2 on economics, 1 on ethnography, 1 on architecture, 1 on painting, 2 on agriculture, 6 on history (one of them is world history), 3 on linguistics, 4 on archeology, 14 on literature, 1 on geography, 1 on soil science; academic publications are also associated with the publication of fiction, collections of articles on literary criticism and reference books on music (dictionary), one reference book refers to museum activities.

38% of the books published in the first years as a result of the publishing house's activities belong to literary criticism, 16% to history, 11% to archeology, 8% to linguistics. The remaining 27% cover economics, ethnography, architecture, painting, agriculture, soil science, geography, economics and social sciences.

Conclusions

Based on the study of the activities of the Publishing House “Elm” in the first years of its existence, it became known that during this period the printing house published about 50 titles of various publications. Most of these books are monographs, scientific publications, collections, and almanacs. 90% of these books are publications in the Azerbaijani language, 69% of books contain scientific information.

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