Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition

[The Author]

Over the months as I was browsing the net, I came upon some online text versions of the Third Edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (released throughout the 1970s), text versions which do not require that you pay some subscription. Unfortunately, I have not found English versions of the text, but the Russian texts only, and I do not speak or read Russian. Still, I have used Babelfish and one can get a general idea of what the articles have to say. Some articles take a Marxist analysis, others take a revisionist analysis, for instance on Stalin, Mao Zedong, China, and Albania. Here are the links:

http://encycl.yandex.ru/search.xml?text=en...rev&encpage=bse (http://encycl.yandex.ru/search.xml?text=enc_abc&enc_abc=*&how=enc_abc_rev&encpage=bse)

Most of the articles on this version are for free, to my knowledge. Although I think others link to Rubricon. Good for mostly quick reference.

http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/130/index.htm

This is my favorite version, because it includes photographs, maps, tables, charts and I think is the closest one can get to reading the original Russian text of the encyclopedia. The only annoying part is that every time you click on a link, a new window opens up.

Oh, and if one is wondering what Babelfish is, it's a web translator:

http://www.babelfish.altavista.com/

[Taiga]

I have all 31 volumes of Great Soviet Encyclopedia at home. Well, there are 30 volumes but there are two volumes #24, one of which is fully dedicated to CCCP.
It's funny to read it because some of the articles are very biased.

By the way, here is the article from «GREAT SOVIET ENCYCLOPEDIA», 1947 on Trotskyism.
http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/trotsky-bse-e.html

Trots, enjoy! :D