Scanning Soviet Books

[Ismail]

Whether it be the Foreign Languages Publishing House, Progress Publishers, the Novosti Press Agency Publishing House or otherwise, Soviet books aren't copyrighted anymore. Many University libraries have these books (covering a wide array of subjects, from the history of the Second International to capital accumulation in Africa), and RevLefters could thus take them out, scan them, and put them online for all to use.

Since I physically own a few, I figure I could try scanning one or two by popular vote of the RevLeft masses.

The works I have are as follows:
* Karl Marx: A Biography (1989, 600 pages)
* Frederick Engels: A Short Biography (1988, 300 pages)
* Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: A Biography (1966, 580 pages)
* Modern History: 1640-1870 (1990, 300 pages)
* Lenin and National Liberation in the East (1978, 480 pages)
* Socialism and the Newly Independent Nations (1974, 560 pages)
* African Problems: Analysis of Eminent Soviet Scientist (early 60's articles by Soviet Africanist I.I. Potekhin, 1968, 140 pages)
* Agrarian Reforms and Hired Labour in Africa (1979, 250 pages)
* Twentieth Century Capitalism (1964, 150 pages)
* The Bolshevik Party's Struggle Against Trotskyism in the Post-October Period (circa 1970, 270 pages)
* Questions of the Socialist Organisation of the Economy (compilation of stuff from Lenin's Collected Works, circa 1965, 400 pages)
* Lenin on the United States of America (another Lenin compilation, also contains some minor stuff not in his Collected Works, 1980, nearly 700 pages)

I can post the table of contents for each book on request. Some are paperback and thus may not react well to my scanner, but I will try my best.

[Wings Of Redemption]

A PDF of that biography of Marx would be worth a read....

[MrCool]

Are you going to do a pdf with .jpg or run pages through a OCR software?
And are these books in russian?


Socialism and the Newly Independent Nations (1974, 560 pages)

+1

[Ismail]

Are you going to do a pdf with .jpg or run pages through a OCR software?
And are these books in russian?I have software that allows for searchable PDFs, so it's the best of both worlds.

These books were published in English, translations of Russian-language works by Soviet professors and whatnot. By contrast, Novosti Press Agency works tended to be pamphlets written specifically for Western readers (in other words, propaganda), but I don't have any at the moment.

Here's an example Novosti Press pamphlet: http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/government/propaganda/1984/ban-chemical-weapons/

[Brutus]

* The Bolshevik Party's Struggle Against Trotskyism in the Post-October Period (circa 1970, 270 pages)

Is this the one you mentioned in the PM about Brezhnev?
I'd be interested in this, comrade.

[Ismail]

Is this the one you mentioned in the PM about Brezhnev?
I'd be interested in this, comrade.Yes, Stalin is barely mentioned in it. It's actually the sequel to a 1969 book dealing with the Bolsheviks against Trotsky in 1903-1917, which Grenzer has scanned and which I can upload if anyone cares to read it.

[Brutus]

It's actually the sequel to a 1969 book dealing with the Bolsheviks against Trotsky in 1903-1917, which Grenzer has scanned and which I can upload if anyone cares to read it.

I would appreciate it comrade.

[Q]

I have software that allows for searchable PDFs, so it's the best of both worlds.

What software?

[Ismail]

What software?ABBYY FineReader 11.

[Q]

ABBYY FineReader 11.

Ah, OCR software. Fair enough.

I found the results, with my limited experimentation with their online service, suboptimal so far. What are your experiences?

[Ismail]

I've had no problems with it. Even if the OCR quality sucked (it's been fine in my experience) you still get the actual scanned images.

Also here's that 1969 work on the Bolsheviks vs. Trotsky from 1903-1917 (which, again, Grenzer scanned): http://www.sendspace.com/file/lv0hu0

[Q]

Also here's that 1969 work on the Bolsheviks vs. Trotsky from 1903-1917 (which, again, Grenzer scanned): http://www.sendspace.com/file/lv0hu0

That's not OCR'ed though. Did you OCR that book? Would be interesting to see the results.

[Ismail]

That's not OCR'ed though. Did you OCR that book? Would be interesting to see the results.....

I just said Grenzer scanned it, not me. I own the "sequel" work, dealing with the post-October period.

[hashem]

i have recently scanned a shortened version of "Fundamentals of political economy" by P.B.Nikitin which was translated to Farsi in 1973. back then, its translator and publisher were arrested and all of its prints were seized and destroyed by Savak (secret police). only one print survived which was republished in 1979 and it was banned again shortly later.

translator had to censor the book himself to avoid persecution, he removed phrases which socialism or USSR were directly praised in them and he only translated the first season. but these measures were not enough.

some people said that i had supported censorship by publishing a censored book. but i believe that i have done a useful thing. maybe it doesnt have any "academical value" but its instructive. in his prelude, the translator who republished this book in 1979 explains that which parts have been changed and why (escaping from persecution and doubting "Russian socialism"). so i told the people who had protested to my censorship to read to the original book if they are so interested in direct (or semi religious) preachment of socialism and USSR!

[Q]

....

I just said Grenzer scanned it, not me. I own the "sequel" work, dealing with the post-October period.

What does OCR'ing have to do with scanning?

But I guess you didn't. That's a pity. I'd like to see some comparisons between pictures/scans and OCR'ed text.

[Ismail]

What does OCR'ing have to do with scanning?ABBYY FineReader turns scanned images into a single PDF file. It allows for said PDF to be searchable, meaning that what you see is a scanned image, but beneath it is OCR'd text. Grenzer doesn't use it, so his is just a PDF with scanned images.

In any case I'd like this thread to focus on what users want to see scanned and not the technical details. So long as the end result is readable.

[Q]

ABBYY FineReader turns scanned images into a single PDF file. It allows for said PDF to be searchable, meaning that what you see is a scanned image, but beneath it is OCR'd text. Grenzer doesn't use it, so his is just a PDF with scanned images.
Oh, I didn't know ABBYY could also do that. So that's what you meant with a "searchable PDF". I was talking about actual OCR'ed text though, not photos or scans.


In any case I'd like this thread to focus on what users want to see scanned and not the technical details. So long as the end result is readable, which it will be.
I'm asking these questions because my interests is actually in creating eBooks (so, freeflow formats like ePub and Mobi), not in PDF's. But fair enough I guess.

[homo sapien]

The Bolshevik Party's Struggle Against Trotskyism in the Post-October Period (circa 1970, 270 pages

Sounds quite interesting! I'd like to see how Soviets looked at Trotsky in retrospect, after the Stalin era.

[The Idler]

My experience with getting books online (using OS X), feel free to share if it is of any use


Scan at 118dpi (Document not photo setting). Doesn't really matter what software you use unless you want to crop, rotate as you scan etc. Don't bend spines of publications backwards.
Save as PDF (Image Only). This will create large files that take up a lot of space.
Run through ABBYY Finereader (the best OCR last time I looked) save as RTF.
Open RTF in word processor and copy and paste into new document. Experiment with paste-special to preserve formatting.
Set headings styles.
Get proofreading - this takes by far the longest amount of time.
Pick a format to save in. Would advise against RTF since its the worst of both worlds, bloated in size and lacking in function. ODT is compressed and good for archiving. DOC is good for sharing at the moment and not too bloated like DOCX.
Share online. Google Drive, SkyDrive, Scribd, Issuu, Archive.org.

[Ismail]

The Bolshevik Party's Struggle Against Trotskyism in the Post-October Period (circa 1970, 270 pages

Sounds quite interesting! I'd like to see how Soviets looked at Trotsky in retrospect, after the Stalin era.The post-1956 view of the Trotskyists and Bukharinists was basically frozen in 1928. Party histories called them opportunists, capitulators, etc., while the Moscow Trials with their charges of many of them being foreign agents and whatnot were totally ignored. They also stressed the efforts of Dzerzhinsky, Kirov, Rudzutak, and various other figures in opposing Trotskyism, relegating Stalin to a lesser role as a guy who made important speeches on behalf of the Central Committee in regards to the opposition.

There was private sympathy for right-wingers like Bukharin and Rykov, but officially they were denounced along the lines of what I just noted. "In a meeting with Rykov's daughter, Mikoyan replied to her question about the rehabilitation of her father: 'This is a political question. It is one we will decide, not the prosecutor. He, of course, never betrayed anyone and did not sell out... If he had held out at the time, then he would be working now.'" (Rogovin, Stalin's Terror of 1937-1938, p. 120.)

[KurtFF8]

This sounds like a great project. Is there a link to a news article or anything verifying that they are no longer copyrighted though?

Also do you have more to the list that you don't have that others could get their hands on?

[Ismail]

This sounds like a great project. Is there a link to a news article or anything verifying that they are no longer copyrighted though?The USSR no longer exists, nor do the publishing houses in question except Nauka, of which I only have one book from them and I seriously doubt anyone would do anything over an English translation of a 45-year old Russian book. That being said, I could remove the offer to scan it (African Problems: Analysis of Eminent Soviet Scientist) if it's an issue.

It is also worth noting that one website was dedicated to putting up Progress Publishers books in HTML format: http://leninist.biz/en/TAZ


Also do you have more to the list that you don't have that others could get their hands on?I could provide a list of interesting books that I can't get (either due to being too expensive or because I don't live near a University library.) The point of this thread is to encourage people to scan Soviet works, with me setting the example.

Anyway, so far we're tied: 1 vote for the Marx biography, 1 vote for the book on the Party vs. Trotskyism in the post-October period, and 1 vote for Socialism and the Newly Independent Nations.

[Brutus]

The Marx biography is easily available on MIA, though

[Ismail]

The Marx biography is easily available on MIA, thoughProvide a link if so, since there's a specific page for Marx biographies on MIA and it is not among them.

[Brutus]

Provide a link if so, since there's a specific page for Marx biographies on MIA and it is not among them.

Ah, my bad. I was thinking of the Lenin biography of Marx...
Sorry folks.
My vote still remains the same

[MarxSchmarx]

The USSR no longer exists, nor do the publishing houses in question except Nauka, of which I only have one book from them and I seriously doubt anyone would do anything over an English translation of a 45-year old Russian book. That being said, I could remove the offer to scan it (African Problems: Analysis of Eminent Soviet Scientist) if it's an issue.


I am not so sure about this, kurtFF8 might be on to something. I read this on the wikipedia page:



Through the Moscow agreement, Soviet works first published in the RSFSR, which were thus subject to the Russian law, became eligible for copyright is all other CIS nations, even if they had been published before 1973.[136] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Russia#cite_note-Elst487-136) With the accession of Russia to the Berne Convention, Soviet and Russian works that were copyrighted in Russia in 1995 became copyrighted outside of Russia.[146] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Russia#cite_note-Elst535-146) By virtue of the retroactivity of the Russian copyright law of 1993, this also included many pre-1973 Soviet works.[173] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Russia#cite_note-Elst532ff-173) In the United States, these works became copyrighted on January 1, 1996, the effective date of the U.S. Uruguay Round Agreements Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay_Round_Agreements_Act), if they were still copyrighted in Russia on that date.[174] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Russia#cite_note-Pilch2003_86-174)[175] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Russia#cite_note-ascap-175) In the countries that had bilateral treaties with the USSR, pre-1973 Soviet works (from any of the fifteen SSRs) were copyrighted even before.[125] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Russia#cite_note-Elst495-125)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Russia#Copyright_on_Soviet_and_Ru ssian_works_in_other_countries

I am not sure how much of an issue all of this is, progress publishers might not indeed have a successor entity although maybe the russian government claims the copyright (I don't know if this is automatically in the public domain)? In any event, my reading of this rather convoluted passage is that Soviet copyrights are held by the Russian Federation. It might be that soviet works before I gather 1973 are mostly not copyrighted in the west, but material that came after that date seem to indeed be so. interesting.

[Questionable]

http://www.amazon.com/All-About-Telescope-Pavel-Klushantsev/dp/0714716626

If someone could scan "All About The Telescope," it would surely bolster Marxist theory to new levels and insure a return of class consciousness in the modern world.

[Ismail]

Lenin's Collected Works that you see on Marxists.org (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/cw/) and Marx2Mao (http://marx2mao.com/Lenin/Index.html) are by Progress Publishers. Considering there's 45 volumes (and the average size seems to be about 500 pages), that's roughly 25,000 pages of text, and MIA has a bunch of other Soviet works as well (e.g. https://www.marxists.org/archive/ilyenkov/works/abstract/index.htm)

Many of those pages have been up for 10+ years.

MIA is cautious about copyrights, so I'm pretty sure there's no real issue.

[evermilion]

I'm submitting my vote for the Marx bio that's up for consideration. I'd also like to submit several votes to any Romanian books about Juche that may be discovered in the near feature.

[Nevsky]

My vote goes to Socialism and the Newly Independent Nations, I would like to get the old soviet pespective on this subject.

[Astarte]

Personally, I would like to see some of the more obscure works by well known Stalin-era Soviets scanned, like Kalinin's "On Communist Education", and the many texts Vyacheslav Molotov wrote - these are hardly ever mentioned, but they do exist in English.

[Ismail]

Personally, I would like to see some of the more obscure works by well known Stalin-era Soviets scanned, like Kalinin's "On Communist Education", and the many texts Vyacheslav Molotov wrote - these are hardly ever mentioned, but they do exist in English.Kalinin's work is online: http://sovietlibrary.org/Library/Union%20of%20Soviet%20Socialist%20Republics/1950_On%20Communist%20Education_M.%20Kalinin_FLPH_ 1950.pdf

You can find various 1920's-40's Soviet works (including some speeches by Molotov) here: http://sovietlibrary.org/Library/index.php

Anyway, we're still tied: 2 votes for Karl Marx: A Biography and 2 for Socialism and the Newly Independent Nations.

[Roach]

I vote for Marx's biography.

[KurtFF8]

I am not so sure about this, kurtFF8 might be on to something. I read this on the wikipedia page:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Russia#Copyright_on_Soviet_and_Ru ssian_works_in_other_countries

I am not sure how much of an issue all of this is, progress publishers might not indeed have a successor entity although maybe the russian government claims the copyright (I don't know if this is automatically in the public domain)? In any event, my reading of this rather convoluted passage is that Soviet copyrights are held by the Russian Federation. It might be that soviet works before I gather 1973 are mostly not copyrighted in the west, but material that came after that date seem to indeed be so. interesting.

This does raise a concern that there may be a copyright issue here then, and thus this thread would be complicit in copyright violation which could negatively affect RevLeft

[Ismail]

I asked Andy Blunden of Marxists.org and he confirmed what I already figured:

Yes, works published by the USSR are free of copyright.
This does not extent to Laurence and Wishart or International Publishers (NY) however, who vigorously defend the copyright of any of their titles which still sell.

So far the Marx bio is winning by one vote. Voting ends in two days.

[MarxSchmarx]

what is exactly is meant by "works published by the ussr" versus, say, "works published in the ussr"? Is this distinction even meaningful when all economic activity was, in theory, controlled by the state in one way or another? For instance, something like the "government announcements gazzette" published by many capitalist governments is "public domain" and there is doctrine of bourgeois law that all material published by the government is not copywrited. Do you mean to say that this same idea extends to all work put out by the Soivet governemnt or one of its "subsidiaries" including entities like, say, aeroflot or intourist? If so, why does the destruction of the USSR really matter than? All that matters is that these were published in one way or another by a government that was governed by many of the same constraints capitalist governemnts abide by routinely.

[Ismail]

I suggest you email him if you're curious. As it stands we have the unambiguous words of a guy who has not only assisted in uploading Soviet texts online, but for 10+ years has been the head of the high-profile website where they're located.

There's also the Marx2Mao webmaster who has been putting not just Soviet but also Chinese-published materials online since 1997.

[KurtFF8]

That is a pretty good source indeed.

We should make sure that anything we publish is not also copyrighted for "Laurence and Wishart or International Publishers (NY)" then of course.

And again I think we should throw together a more comprehensive list of currently unavailable yet non-copyrighted works to be scanned.

Also I'm in NYC and I assume that the various libraries here may help in this endeavor.

[Ismail]

International Publishers = CPUSA. I have a number of books by them, but already knew that they're copyrighted and thus irrelevant to the thread. Ditto with Lawrence and Wishart.

Anyway here's a big ol' list of books, 99% of them Soviet, anyone can try obtaining and scanning:

* Formation of the Socialist Economic System
* Socialism and the Rational Needs of the Individual
* The Transition From Capitalism to Socialism by Neznanov
* Socialist Nationalisation of Industry by V. Vinogradov
* Economic Policy During the Construction of Socialism in the USSR
* Fundamentals of the Socialist Theory of the State and Law
* Socialism: Questions of Theory by Richard Ivanovich Kosolapov
* Political Economy: A Beginner's Course by Aleksandr Vladimirovich Buzuev
* Economic Inequality of Nations by above
* Soviet Foreign Policy: Objectives and Principles
* Soviet Foreign Policy: 1917-1980 (two volumes)
* What is Political Economy? by Sergeĭ Sergeevich Ilʹin and Aleksandr Samuilovich Motylev
* Present-Day Non-Marxist Political Economy: A Critical Analysis
* Management of Socialist Production (by Popov)
* The Socialist Revolution and Its Defense: Early History of Soviet Russia
* The State Law of the Socialist Countries
* The Working Class in Socialist Society: Common International Features and National Distinctions
* Mass Media in the USSR
* The Soviet Constitution and the Myths of Sovietologists
* The New Constitution of the USSR
* The USSR: A Dictatorship or a Democracy? by Ludo van Eck
* Communism and Cultural Heritage by Baller
* Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists
* The October Revolution and Africa
* The Ideology of African Revolutionary Democracy
* Neocolonialism and Africa in the 1970s
* The Political Economy of Revolution: Contemporary Issues as seen from the Historical Standpoint
* A Fraternal Family of Nations: A Review of Soviet Experience in Solving the National Question
* The Nationalities Question: Lenin's approach: Theory and Practice in the USSR
* Solving the National Question in the USSR
* Soviet Union: Political and Economic Reference Book
* Nations and Social Progress
* The United Soviet People (1978)
* Categories and laws of the political economy of communism
* Conservatism in US Ideology and Politics
* Revolutionary Democracy and Communists in the East
* Leninism and the Agrarian and Peasant Question (two volumes)
* Soviet Democracy in the Period of Developed Socialism
* U.S.S.R.: Reorganisation and Renewal
* Soviets of People's Deputies: Democracy and Administration
* Authoritarianism and Democracy by Kerimov
* Organisation of Industry and Construction in the USSR
* Law and Legal Culture in Soviet Society
* Agrarian Relations in the USSR
* The Soviet State as a Subject of Civil Law
* The Individual and the Microenvironment
* Detente and Anti-communism
* Population and socioeconomic development
* The Rise of Socialist Economy: The Experience of the USSR, Other Socialist, and Socialist-oriented Developing Countries
* Asian Dilemma: The Essence of Social Progress in the Transitional Period
* Two Worlds-Two Monetary Systems
* Revolutionary Democracy in Africa: Its Ideology and Policy
* Africa Today: Progress, Difficulties, Perspectives
* National Liberation Movement in West Africa
* Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth in Developing Africa
* The Teaching of Political Economy: A Critique of Non-Marxian Theories
* Agricultural Co-operatives: Their Role in the Development of Socialist Agriculture in the Soviet Union
* The Marxist-Leninist Teaching of Socialism and the World Today
* Communism and Freedom by Kosolapov
* Southern Africa: Apartheid, Colonialism, Aggression
* South Africa Against Africa, 1966-1986
* African Countries' Foreign Policy by Gromyko
* Agostinho Neto by Khazanov
* Afghanistan, The Revolution Continues
* The Developing Countries' Social Structure
* Lenin: A Biography (1983)
* The Birth of Nations by Volkov
* Basics of Marxist-Leninist Theory (by Volkov, 1983)
* Classes and the class struggle in the USSR, 1920s-1930s
* Bureaucracy, Triumph and Crisis: New Thinking
* Imperialism and the Developing Countries (1984)
* The Heartbeat of Reform: Soviet Jurists and Political Scientists Discuss the Progress of Perestroika
* What Prominent Chinese Democrats and Communists Have Said about the Soviet Union
* From the missionary days to Reagan: US China policy
* The Case for Perestroika (1989)
* Government Regulation of the Private Sector in the USSR
* Soviet Foreign Trade: Today and Tomorrow
* CMEA and Third Countries; Legal Aspects of Co-operation
* The Experience of Industrial Management in the Soviet Union
* NEP: A Modern View (1988)
* From the History of Soviet-Chinese Relations in the 1950's
* The Theory of Growth of a Socialist Economy (by Anchishkin)
* Inter-American Relations: From Bolivar to the Present
* Perestroika and Law
* Property in the USSR and the Countries of Eastern Europe
* Socialist-oriented Development and Its Critics
* The Socialist Working Class and Ideological Struggle
* The Russian Revolutionary Tradition
* The Requirements of Common Sense (1990, by Kondrashov)
* The Revolution Continues: Going Back to Lenin
* The Socialist Countries: Important Changes
* What is the World Socialist System?
* International Law: A Textbook (by Tunkin)
* Lenin and the World Revolutionary Process
* Participation of the Byelorussian SSR in the Struggle for the Observance of Human Rights
* The Ukrainian SSR in Contemporary International Relations
* The Soviet Union and the Manchurian Revolutionary Base
* The Constitutions of the 16 Constituent or Union Republics of the U.S.S.R: A Comparative Analysis
* Estonia Yesterday and Today by Johannes Käbin
* Uzbekistan: Questions and Answers
* Socialist Uzbekistan: A Path Equalling Centuries
* Developing Countries on the Non-Capitalist Road

[MarxSchmarx]

I suggest you email him if you're curious. As it stands we have the unambiguous words of a guy who has not only assisted in uploading Soviet texts online, but for 10+ years has been the head of the high-profile website where they're located.

There's also the Marx2Mao webmaster who has been putting not just Soviet but also Chinese-published materials online since 1997.

I'm sorry, but that's really lame, Ismail.

The burden of proof is on you, not me, to refute what seems to me pretty cut and dry law. I'm not this australian webmaster, sure, but my reading of the situation is that Soviet works published after 1973 are presumed copywritten until proven otherwise in the west. Maybe for select publishers like progress or something you can make a case that they are, in fact, in the public domain, but then you or this guy who runs MIA should do so here. Just because some other website (or, rather, the webmaster of some other website) makes a vague assertion to you via an email or whatever that don't worry it's OK, isn't particularly persuasive.

I'd be willing to hear them out if that really is what they are saying. But at the same time, this is revleft and as a revleft-er I expect this to be the forum where these things are discussed. Not my private email to some person off forum. If they want to sign up to revleft and argue their case, great. let them prove me wrong here - I'm not an expert on post-Soviet copyright law so maybe I'm wrong. But maybe I'm not.

If people want to engage in discussions by proxy that's fine, but then they shouldn't expect revlefters to have to listen to what they have to say. In short, I feel under no obligation, and I think fellow revlefters will agree with me, to honor the (2nd hand) claims of somebody who can't even bother to allow everyone to read their position subject to the purview of other revleft members (much less in the open) and discuss it among other leftists at what is, after all, our forum, not theirs. It's just basic courtesy and decency.

As to your other claims, presumably that it's gone OK so far, it might just be that these copyright holders haven't bothered to go after them. That has happened before under capitalism and various websites. But that's just different from saying it's legit. I'm not the financial owner of this site so it doesn't matter to me personally so much, but just cuz the IMA and whatever else got away with it so far doesn't mean you have the green light. The bourgeois state or the major corps can be selective in who they go after.

You haven't answered my question about how exactly soviet works are treated and whether any entity owns the rights. China is a different country so I don't see what relevance it has until you start to justify posting Chinese works the way you are justifying posting soviet stuff.

[La Guaneña]

I would very much like these works, comrade:

* African Problems: Analysis of Eminent Soviet Scientist (early 60's articles by Soviet Africanist I.I. Potekhin, 1968, 140 pages)
* Agrarian Reforms and Hired Labour in Africa (1979, 250 pages)

By the way, I must thank you beforehand for the efforts. :)

[Ismail]

China is a different country so I don't see what relevance it has until you start to justify posting Chinese works the way you are justifying posting soviet stuff.My point is that you're being paranoid about nothing. People having been uploading Soviet and old Chinese materials online for over 15 years now. Universities across the world mirror the contents of the MIA without incident. If you're so concerned then email the "Australian webmaster" yourself.

Anyway it looks like the first book I will be scanning is the Marx biography. It's hardcover, so it shouldn't be difficult to scan. In second place is Socialism and the Newly Independent Nations (also hardcover) which, if not tied by anything else in the coming days, I'll scan as well.

Look for the Marx bio sometime tomorrow.

[Ismail]

I was able to scan 249 pages of the Marx bio until my scanner committed the counterrevolutionary act of not working anymore. Luckily I have another, superior scanner which... does not work with ABBYY FineReader, though I may be able to get it to turn scanned pages into PDFs anyway, just not the searchable kind.

I'm also not too fond of the quality of the scans I did make; the edges make some texts near them hard to read and the whole thing has a rather faded look to it.

Ergo I will try restarting the scan on the superior scanner tomorrow.

As it stands, people can take a look at what I shall dub "Karl Marx: An Unfinished Biography" here: [snip, link doesn't exist anymore]

May 25 Edit: Gonna have to wait a few days before I can try scanning the rest.