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...mical-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

1. 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.
2. Save as PDF (Image Only). This will create large files that take up a lot of space.
3. Run through ABBYY Finereader (the best OCR last time I looked) save as RTF.
4. Open RTF in word processor and copy and paste into new document. Experiment with paste-special to preserve formatting.
5. Set headings styles.
6. Get proofreading - this takes by far the longest amount of time.
7. 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.
8. 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.)