PRESERVATION, STUDY AND POPULARIZATION OF BOOK HERITAGE IN IRKUTSK ("ACADEMIA" PUBLISHING HOUSE COLLECTION)

"Academia" Publishing House (1922–1937) books are an example of high publishing culture.

For many years, the products of the publishing house have been the subject of close attention on the part of bibliophiles and collectors in many countries of the world. The reason for this interest is literary impeccability and excellent decoration. To reach unprecedented artistic heights became possible thanks to the work of the best Soviet professional artists. All the existing printing methods, the best printing houses, and graphic art techniques were used while creating these books. The history of the publishing house, covered in rare publications, alongside with triumphal events, victories at international book competitions, is full of dramatic and even tragic pages. It can be called the publishing house of repressed editors, authors, and books.

Almost all the managers of Academia, many employees were subjected to repressions, were sentenced to capital punishment. Their names were extorted from the output of the entire book circulation; introductory articles were cut out, publications were discontinued, sometimes, entire print runs of books were destroyed. In modern libraries, copies of such "repressed" books have been miraculously preserved. That is why it is difficult to overestimate their historical and cultural value – genuine documentary witnesses of historical events of almost a century remoteness.

The history of the Academia Publishing House is intertwined with Irkutsk, since the stuff included people whose fate related to the city on the Angara: the last head of the “Academia”, Yakov Davidovich Yanson, after the October revolution held leadership positions in the government in Irkutsk; the founder of the Soviet school of folklore and anthrax studies, Irkutsk professor Mark Konstantinovich Azadovsky also collaborated with the publishing house “Academia”.

The article is the first to observe the questions of valuable collections formation and preservation in the Irkutsk Regional Universal Scientific Library named after I. I. Molchanov-Sibirsky (IRSUSL), the former library of the Irkutsk Pedagogical Institute and the library of the Irkutsk Regional Art Museum named after V. P. Sukatchev (IRAM). Collecting bit-by-bit book masterpieces, librarians study, popularize them at exhibitions, presentations, lectures, showing the authentic Russian book art culture.

1. Rozhdestvenskaya L. A. Izdatel’stvo «ACADEMIA» v Leningrade. 1921-1928 gg. [Printing house «ACADEMIA» in Leningrad. 1921–1928]. Moscow, Mir knigi, 1998. 216 p. (In Russ.).

2. Alekseeva G. A. (ed.) Katalog izdanii «ACADEMIA» 1922-1938 [«ACADEMIA» catalogue of editions of 1922–1938]. Moscow, Academia, 2004. 137 p. (In Russ).

3. Krylov V. V., Kichatova E. V.; Popov V. A. (ed.) Izdatel’stvo «Academia». Lyudi i knigi. 1921–1938–1991 [Printing house «ACADEMIA». People and books. 1921–1938–1991]. Moscow, Academia, 2004. 321, [4] p. (In Russ).

4. Izdatel’stvo ACADEMIA (1922–1937) [Printing house «ACADEMIA» (1922–1937)]. URL: http:academia.bukinist.su (accessed 01.11.2019). (In Russ).

5. Goldfarb S. I., Pertseva T. A., Sakharova V. P. [et al.] (auths.-comps.) Irkutsk: entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Irkutsk: encyclopaedic dictionary]. Irkutsk, 2006. 368 p. (In Russ).

6. Trushkin V. P. (ed.), Yarnevskii I. Z. (comp.) Vospominaniya o M. K. Azadovskom [Memoirs about M. K. Azadovsky]. Irkutsk, Izd-vo Irkut. un-ta, 1996. 208 p. (In Russ).

7. Ershov P. Konyok-Gorbunok. Russkaya skazka (1834, 1856, 1920, 1934, 1935 gody) [Konyok-Gorbunok. Russian tale (1834, 1856, 1920, 1934, 1935)]. URL: http://xn-80aba1abaoftjax8d.xn--p1ai/ (accessed 15.11.2019). (In Russ).

8. Chukovsky K. I. Skazki [Tales]. Moscow, Academia, 1935. 158, [3] p. (In Russ).

9. Konashevich V. M. O sebe i svoem dele [About myself and my business]. Moscow, Det. lit., 1968. 496 p. (In Russ).

10. Popova N., Sokolina T. (comps.) Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich. 1988–1963 [Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich. 1988–1963]. Leningrad, Sovet. khudozhnik, 1967. 48 p. (In Russ).

11. Nevsky Vladimir Ivanovich. Slovari i entsiklopedii na Akademike. URL: https://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc_biography/89092/%D0%9D%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9 (accessed 29.11.2019). (In Russ).

12. De Berzherak S. ; Nevsky V. I. (ed.) Inoi svet ili gosudarstva i imperii Luny [Other light or states and empires of the Moon]. Moscow, Leningrad, Academia, 1931. 302, [2] p. (In Russ).

13. Bedulina I. P. The owner’s collection of Irkutsk city architect Boris Mikhailovich Kerbel’ in the rare collection of V. P. Sukachev Irkutsk Regional Art Museum library. Balandinskie chteniya : sb. st. nauch. cht. pamyati S. N. Balandina. Novosibirsk, 2019, 14: 411–418. (In Russ).

14. Sokol’nikov M. P. N. V. Kuz’min [N. V. Kuz’min]. Moscow, Sovet. khudozhnik, 1964. 208 p. (In Russ).

15. Drevne-russkaya miniatyura : 100 listov miniatyur s opisaniem i stat’yami M. Vladimirova i G. P. Georgievskogo [Ancient Russian miniature : 100 sheets of miniatures with descriptions and articles by M. Vladimirov and G. P. Georgievsky]. Moscow, Academia, 1933. 115 p. (In Russ).

16. Sarab’yanov A. D. (ed.) Sto pamyatnykh dat : khudozhestvennyi kalendar’. 1982 [One hundred memoir dates : art calendar. 1982]. Moscow, Sovet. khudozhnik, 1981. 383 p. (In Russ).

17. Slovo o polku Igoreve, Igorya syna Svyatoslavlya, vnuka Ol’gova [The tale of Igor’s campaign, Igor son of Svyatoslava, the grandson of Olga]. Moscow, Academia, 1934. 49, [3] p. (In Russ).