Publications of science journals and books describing the latest achievements of individual scientists and whole research centers of the Russian Academy are not just factual accounts of the latest findings of academic institutes and of the level of their progress and achievements. What they amount to, in fact, can be described as the concluding stage of these studies and the first step towards their practical implementation. To use a common expression of members of our scientific community-our fundamental science begins with the Academy and its fruits are brought to the public by the NAUKA Publishing House- the academic "assembly shop".

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By Vladimir VASILYEV, Dr. Sc. (Philology), Deputy Chairman, RAS Scientific- Publishing Council

The beginning of science books publication depended on the rules of the evolution of the dissemination of information which, in its turn, was linked with improvements in the organization and essence of scientific research in the latter quarter of the 18th century. Reforms of Peter the Great promoted the progress of our science without which innovations in industry and farming, reforms of the Russian army and the navy, would have been impossible. The appearance of scientific publications-which promoted the successful construction of shipyards, mining factories, textile mills, geological prospecting, studies of the vegetable and animal world-was prompted by urgent practical demands of the time. It was in these socio-economic circumstances that academic book publishing got its start. Its starting point was October 4, 1727 (Old Style) when the opening of the Academy of Sciences was followed by that of the Academic Printing House. Proclaimed on that day was a decree of the Supreme Privy Council on the establishment of a printing house "... for books on history, translations into the Russian language, which were to be approved by the Synod and the Academy."

In the following years, and up to the establishment of a specialized academic publishing center, the original printing house belonged to the Academy and performed both publishing and printing functions, including the processing of manuscripts and the issue of scholarly works, acting as the historical predecessor of what is now the NAUKA Publishing House- the modern publishing-polygraphic complex of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

It was in his "Draft Regulation on the establishment of the Academy of Sciences and Arts" (with personal corrections by Peter the Great) that its central tasks and objectives were formulated: "Every academician has to read the works of good authors in his field which are published in other countries. In this way it will be easy for him to write extracts (selections) therefrom. Such extracts, together with other inventions and discoveries, have to be submitted to the Academy for publication in due time."

The Regiment of the Academy of Sciences of 1725, compiled by Catherine I, said: "And we also declare that the Academy should have a printing house of its own with a privilege that all works serving to promote the cause of science, and the glory of the Empire be first considered by the Academy, submitted to print and sold out".

The first scientific publications of the Academic Printing House included:

- "Monthly, historical, genealogical and geographical notes" (special supplements to the newspaper "St. Petersburg Gazette") which carried articles by professors of the Academy;

- "Calendars, or Menologions" (Academy possessed monopoly rights on their publication in Russian, German and French and their distribution) containing, apart from the customary data, articles on history, astronomy, geography and other sciences;

- "Sermones in primo solenni Academiae Scientiarum imperialis conventu..." (Speeches at the first annual session of the Imperial Academy of Sciences delivered in public on December 27,1725);

- "Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum imperialis Petropolitanae" (Commentaries of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences) which carried works of members of the Academy*.

On January 2, 1728 the Printing House of the Academy released the first issue of the newspaper "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" which appeared in Russian (the newspaper was published by the Academy for nearly 170 years). Charged with its supervision was one of the first Members of the Academy, Acad. Gerhard Miller, who was even relieved of conducting his classes at the Academy Gymnasium. That same year saw the publication of the first translated work: in February 1728 the Librarian and Counsellor of the Academic Printing House, Dr. Ivan Schuhmacher, requested a permission of the Academy President, Prof. L. Blumentrost, for the publication of speeches of academicians J. De Lisle and D. Bernulli.

The works published by the Academic Printing House were almost immediately offered to the international public. During his visit to England in October 1730 Academician G. Miller made presents of these publications to the Royal Society in London. Later on Academy publications were being sent abroad on a regular basis.

Right from the start publications of the Academic Printing House, apart from their scientific and general cultural value, were model examples of polygraphic art and skill. Its earliest achievements include the "Chineyan Grammar" published in 1729 - 1730 for the printing of which Chinese hieroglyphs were engraved in Russia for the first time, and in 1737 Georgian characters were also cast here. Art and musical scripts, or sheet music, publications were started in 1730 with a Tredyakovsky's translation "Journey to the Isle of Love" and the musical script to an ode by the same author.

On July 24, 1747 new Regulations and staff norms were approved for the Academy of Sciences and Arts. This included a printing ship, a book store, script-casting facilities, a book-binding workshop a printing house for engravings and works of artists and craftsmen. It was also established that there be "two printing shops: one for the printing of books in foreign tongues and another for publications in Russian".

* See'. V. Vasilyev, "From History of Russia's Academic Book Publishing", Science in Russia, No. 3, 1998.- Ed.

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A major contribution to the development of the Academic Printing House and book- publishing was provided by our famous compatriot Mikhail Lomonosov. He often used its services, selected craftsmen for "engraving of maps on copper", prepared designs for "Abyssinian and Ethiopian scripts", prepared and submitted to the academic authorities proposals for improvements in book-printing activities and techniques.

We have been able to find some hitherto unpublished documents shedding light on an active participation in these activities of the celebrated master-craftsman and inventor, Ivan Kulibin. In 1769 he was appointed to the post of Mechanic at the St. Petersburg Academy and did a lot for the proper maintenance and improvement of the printing equipment.

An analysis of the newly discovered and also earlier published archive documents has revealed a range of special features and activities. Thus, according to a special decree, authors had to submit for print "manuscripts in clear writing and without substantial corrections during proof-reading". In the late 1860s the Academic Printing House made an agreement with the printing house of Moscow University on exchanges of lists of coming publications so as to avoid duplications. Interesting details are found in a report of the Chancellery Secretary, Pyotr Khanin, submitted to the President of the Academy on March 17, 1754: the number of the proposed new publications should "match that of the available printing presses" and "the number of commentaries should be reduced from what is being printed now". Back in those years the Academy was already taking care of improving book-publishing procedures, reducing the number of corrections, prevention of duplications and reducing the volume of especially complicated type-setting.

The Academy of Sciences and its Printing House formulated the "Rules of Orthography and Punctuation Marks". In a new branch of the Academic Printing House-established in 1758 and attached to the main one in 1766-"there emerged for the first time problems of authorship rights and remuneration for intellectual work in the 18th-century Russia". At first "authors submitted their manuscripts in return for a limited number of copies of their own printed works; and later on they received financial remunerations".

At the end of the 18th century the Academy was charged with control functions for the scholarly content of publications produced by "freelance printing workshops" and the latter had to "submit their publications for inspection to the Academy which issued permissions for printing..."

In the 18th century there emerged a tendency in the structure of state printing houses for producing a "model" of publishing apparatus and the associated attempts of marking, or labelling, of outgoing publications. The leader in this field was the Academic Printing House which formulated "canons" to be observed by all other printers in this country.

As we know now, members of the Academy corrected each other's books. Prof. G. Miller, for example, "reviewed a list of errors made by Dr. Christian Winsheim in his "Geography of the Russian Empire" which had to be corrected in galley proofs".

On October 5, 1767 it was announced that as of 1768 all academic publications had to carry on the title page a special mark and that means that a trademark of the Academic Printing House was introduced as early as in the 18th century. In 1769 it was decided that every member of the Academy was entitled to one copy of all publications printed at its expense.

As has already been pointed out, Academic publications

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were exemplary products of polygraphic skill. This especially applied to the printing of mathematical formulas which required special techniques and provided a tangible contribution to Russia's printing techniques of the 18th century.

The beginning of the 19th century was marked by a decree of Emperor Pavel I which banned members of the Academy from publishing their works abroad without a permission of the Academy administration.

Under the new Regiment and List of Staff (approved in July, 1803) the Academic Printing House and Book Store were directly subordinated to the Administrative Committee which was responsible for the development of science books publication and its material support. All printing houses of the Empire were not allowed-on pain of confiscation for the benefit of the Academy-"to reprint without its special permission books brought out by the Academic Printing House."

Approved on April 4,1829 was a new Status and List of Staff of the Printing House prepared by a specially established Provisional Committee. And up until the regulations introduced by the Soviet Government (1918) its activities were regimented by the Charter of the Academy of January 8, 1836 (with some corrections mainly on financial matters). The list of its "products" included the "pioneers" of Russian science literature, early chronicles, the first "History of Russia from Ancient Times", reports on the famous expeditions by Russian academicians, a vast number of translations, works of classical antiquity and writings of Mikhail Lomonosov-the founding father of Russian science.

At the start of the 20th century the Academy continued to play its leading educational role, issuing periodicals for the benefit of both the scientific community and the general public, works on history, archive and bibliographic books, series of works on linguistics, dictionaries (including the "Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language") and books of fiction.

In 1918 by a decree of the Soviet Government the Academic Printing House, with all other printing centers, was placed under the administration of the NARKOMPROS (People's Commissariat of Education) and was officially called "The 12th State Printing House". In 1921 it was returned to the Academy of Sciences, and in 1924 it was named "The Russian State Academic Printing House".

From 1917 to 1923 book-printing and publishing were the responsibility of the Academic Secretary, Prof. Sergei Oldenburg. On April 14, 1923, the Main Directorate for Literature and Book-Publishing (GLAVLIT) registered, as an independent specialized academic publishing center, the Publishing House of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Its publishing and printing functions were separated, but academic book publishing was preserved within a single publishing and printing complex.

The first publication of 1924 with a trademark of the RAS Publishing House in the title was the "Izvestia (Proceedings) of the Russian Academy of Sciences" (VI series, vol. 1 - 11).

On June 18,1927 the SOVNARKOM (Council of People's Commissars) of the USSR approved the new Charter of the Academy. It provided for publications of works of members of the Academy and "other scientists, submitting their studies, with its approval, in periodicals, collections and separate books..." Periodicals of the USSR Academy of Sciences carried only original articles and studies.

The practical division of what we call the academic publishing and printing complex into two independent units-the publishing and printing houses-took place in the middle of 1929. An editorial sector was set up in the publishing house with a staff of what were called technical editors. The approval of annual plans of academic publications became the responsibility of the General Meeting of the USSR Academy.

Appreciable changes took place on May 23, 1930 in connection with the adoption of the new Charter of the USSR Academy. It included a special section-"Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences" under which the administration of academic editorial and publishing activities became the responsibility of a Council (RISO), elected by a General Session and headed by the Permanent Secretary of the Academy.

On October 3, 1930 the General Session of the USSR Academy approved Regulations for the Publishing House and RISO. Set up for the first time within the Publishing House as an independent unit was a new organizational structure-the "distribution sector". Established on its basis in 1938 was an independent Office for the distribution of academic publications-AKADEMKNIGA, subordinated to the NAUKA Publishing House.

Established in 1958 by the Presidium of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy was its Editorial-Publishing Department. Set up on its basis in 1965 was the Siberian Branch of the NAUKA Publishing House (now-Siberian Publishing Firm NAUKA of the RAS Akademizdat Center NAUKA). Certain changes were introduced in 1959, with the approval of plans of publications becoming the responsibility of the Academy Presidium and the RISO and the Publishing House being subordinated to the Presidium of the USSR Academy. Under the Charter, branches of the Academy were to direct and control the work of the editorial boards of academy journals.

In 1964, by a joint decision of the USSR Academy Presidium and the GOSKOMITET of the USSR Council of Ministers, the Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Science was enlarged with the addition of the Publishing House of Oriental Literature and books on physics and mathematics which received a self-financing status.

1970 saw the completion of a new printing house in Novosibirsk-the fourth branch of the NAUKA Publishing House (today-the Siberian Publishing-Polygraphic and Book- Selling Enterprise NAUKA-a subsidiary of the NAUKA Publishing House of the Russian Academy).

In March 1982 a decree was passed "On the Procedure of Publication of a Codex of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Peoples of the USSR". Shortly after a specialized editorial board was set up within the Publishing House. In 1992 the NAUKA Publishing House (in Moscow) was charged with preparations of books listed in the above Codex.

In 1988 a new Status of the RISO of the USSR Academy was approved which was later renamed the Scientific-

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Publishing Council (NISO) of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In October 1988 the NAUKA Publishing House (Moscow) with its subordinate enterprises and organizations was reorganized by a decision of the USSR Council of Ministers into the NAUKA Publishing-Production and Book-Selling Amalgamation which became a single economic-production complex.

1990 - 1991 saw the collapse of Russia's centralized system of book-printing and distribution which was based for nearly one hundred percent on federal orders with a prepayment for books supplied to book-selling organizations. Soaring prices made practically all academic publications unprofitable. In these circumstances the USSR Academy Presidium, being fully aware of the need of maintaining academic publications, took a decision on compensating the losses on the NAUKA Publishing House from the publication of academic journals in a centralized manner. Unfortunately, because of financial problems, it was not always possible to implement that decision.

In keeping with a Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of November 21, 1991 "On the Organization of the Russian Academy of Sciences" the General Meeting of the Academy decided that academic publishing and printing houses and book- selling centers with their structural subsidiaries within the territory of the Russian Federation should become property of the Russian Academy and are to be administered by its Presidium.

In the subsequent years the system of management of this publishing-printing complex underwent further changes: it became All-Russia Amalgamation NAUKA (1992), then the RAS Directorate for the administration of publishing poly-graphic and book-selling enterprises. In 1996 it became an academic scientific-publishing and production-polygraphic and book-distribution Center-the NAUKA Publishing House (Akademizdattsentr NAUKA, RAS), incorporating 37 branch organizations and enterprises.

In May 1992, December 1998 and later in December 2001 the Academy Presidium approved new regulations concerning the NISO RAS, the composition of its Plenary Session and Bureau, heads of NISO sections and editorial boards of what are called all-academic serial publications. The role of NISO in coordinating the individual publishing activities of RAS organizations was considerably increased (outside the scope of the general academic publishing houses).

In the latter half of 1990, and in a bid to protect its intellectual property rights, the Academy adopted a range of norms and regulations for the prevention of unauthorized issue of academic collected works, serial and successive editions, for the observance of a common publication procedure for RAS scientific books in non-academic structures, the Statute of the RAS science journals, etc.

Today publishing activities of the Academy are carried out by a whole network of structures, including publishing houses belonging to the NAUKA Akademizdattsentr, publishing houses of its regional branches and academic research centers, publishing subdivisions of more than 150 academic research establishments and also non- commercial organiza-

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tions and economic societies of which they are founders or co-founders. Some of the publications are produced by extra-academic structures.

Describing in brief the dynamics of academic scientific publications, one should note that what we call specialized literature and/or archives are practically lacking comprehensive publications of materials-from the very beginning and up to this day- shedding light on this subject. And this shortage of information is especially apparent with reference to the 18th, 19th centuries and the 1980s and 1990s.

The scale of publications during the first year of operation of the Academic Printing House is described in a supplement to the "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" gazette of December 21, 1728: offered for sale were 11 science publications. In fact that was the first catalogue of academic literature.

In 1727 - 1740 the place of the leader was taken by the Academic Printing House with its 309 publications-one half of the total number of publications for that period.

The most comprehensive data on academy publications from 1728 to 1912 inclusive has been obtained by us from the "Catalogue of Publications of the Imperial Academy of Sciences" released from 1912 to 1916 in three parts. Over a period of nearly 200 years there came out: 1,658 books in Russian, 1,382 publications in foreign languages, 873 periodicals and serial publications.

It was commonly believed that the peak of book-publishing in the years before the Russian Revolution was in 1913 when the volume of publications reached 1,434 printer's sheets. But we have found in the archives of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy a hitherto unpublished document- a copy of a report by engineer- technologist Tripolitov from the Despatch Office for documents of state of November 27,1893 when the above official conducted a detailed survey of the Academic Printing House. An analysis of this document in conjunction with other available sources makes it possible for us to reject the commonly accepted statistics: in the years from 1728 to 1917 the Academic Printing House brought out more than 4,000 publications.

Of unquestionable interest within this general context are the dynamics of formation of the network of academic journals-one of the major areas of activities of the Academy. Many of them have a long history (the very first academic periodicals came out back in 1728). Being published since 1852 in its unchanged format is the Izvestia (Proceedings) of the Academy of Sciences. Literature and Langue Series., from 1865- Izvestia of the Russian Geographical Society, since 1866-Matematichesky Sbornik (Mathematical Collection), Zapiski Vserossiiskogo Mineralogicheskogo Obshchestva (Transactions of the All-Russia Mineralogical Society), since 1869-Journal of General Chemistry, since 1873- Journal of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, since 1899- Pochvovedenye (Soil Science).

One can site here for the first time and with a great share of authenticity data on the beginnings of academic book publishing in 1727 - 1728 and up to our days. There appeared over 275 years nearly 160 thous. books and journals with a volume of over 2.4 mln of printer's sheets and the summary circulation of 2.5 bin copies, also including the present period, that is after the establishment of the specialized academic publishing house in 1923 - 155 thous. publications with a volume of 2.3 mln printer's sheets and a summary circulation of 2.4 bin copies.

The initial period (1727-early 20th century) in the history of academic book publishing activities is characterized by the fact that its Printing House exceeded by far the scale of activities of a single agency and became, in fact, a center of national book-learning culture and the propagation of civic publications, producing a tremendous impact on the development of Russian book-printing and education. Without the contribution of its Printing House during that period the Academy of Sciences could hardly rally around itself our leading scientists, writers and cultural figures which determined its outstanding contribution to the formation of the most branches of knowledge and the propagation on a national scale of the achievements of our science, education and culture.

At the subsequent stages there continued the development of what we call the thematic and typological structure of the massif of academic publications as determined by the specifics of academic science and its requirements in reflecting the results of scientific research.

At the first and second stages (before the start of the 19th century) the "repertoire" of academic activities in this field met the needs of conveying to the public the results of scientific activities and providing to the public books of learning and education. During that period the Academy emerged as the pioneer of most publications, or, figuratively speaking, a "topic-forming factory" which provided an invaluable contribution to bibliography.

Later on the Academy focused its attention on publications of its research centers with a view to demonstrating the achievements of each one of them. This stage is characterized by a marked broadening of the range of thematical directions in keeping with the structural expansion of the Academy and also of fundamental research. At the same time, as has been pointed out already, the magazines network was only taking shape.

The range of publications of the period of the Great Patriotic War (1941 - 1945) is characterized, above all, by what we call minimal material-technical resources which were all submitted to the central task of the war years: " Everything for the battlefront! Everything for Victory!" And scientists of the Academy provided no small contribution to reaching this goal and that was reflected in the scale and quality of academic publications. The period from 1963 to 1964 saw significant structural- thematic changes in this country's book-publishing and the Academy was no exception in that respect. A major impact upon the thematic-aspectual massif of publications was produced by the Attachment to the Publishing House of the USSR Academy of the Publishing House of Oriental Literature and FIZMAT (Publishing House of Physics and Mathematics). As compared with 1960 when the share of publications on physics and mathematics in the total volume of literature was a little over 8 percent, after the reorganization it rose to 16 and later to 22 percent.

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In response to the requirements of science and taking into account the interest of specialists towards publications like the Proceedings, Transactions and bulletins (Trudy, Uchenye Zapiski, Bulleteni) and what are called "non-thematic" collections (in the early 1960s there were more than 400 of such serial publications), the Academy adopted a course of a radical reduction of the number of publications which became ineffective and replaced them with monographs and thematic collections of scientific works. Launched at the same time was a program of priority development of the magazines network which provided for the timely publication of research findings, above all in the priority fields, within the shortest possible time. A total of more than 90 such journals were opened from 1961.

It should also be pointed out that from the second half of the 20th century much publishing work has been done by centers like the All-Russia Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI) established in 1952, the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (INION), established in 1969, the Library of Natural Sciences (BEN), functioning since 1967 and the Library of the Academy of Sciences (BAN) founded in 1714 and incorporated into the Academy structure since its foundation.

VINITI issues journals of abstracts on natural and technical sciences, express- information, abstracts "Itogi Nauki i Tehkniki" (Summaries on Science and Technology), etc. Being a center of scientific information on social sciences and humanities, INION brings out bibliographic and reference journals, academic surveys on key problems of social sciences.

The list of current academic publications includes literature on scientific research, popular science literature, official, educational, reference books and books on literature and arts. The central and most important organization in this field remains the NAUKA Akademizdattsentr (publishing center). Today it includes six general academic publishing houses, four poly-graphic, 23 wholesale and retail book-selling agencies located in the main cities of Russia-Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Vladivostok, etc. The list also includes the NAUKA-EXPORT foreign trade firm and the Science Center for studies of the history of literary culture (scientific-methodological guidance is performed by the RAS Department of Historical-Philological Sciences).

It should be pointed out that NAUKA specializes above all in academic publications. Its thematic plans are of universal and encyclopaedic nature, embracing all areas of natural, technical, social sciences and humanities. It brings out complete collections of works of classics of literature, monographs, thematic collections, proceedings of institutes, textbooks, reference books, encyclopaedias, hundreds of yearbooks and more than 100 serial publications which enjoy general recognition.

The list of academic collected works being published now includes: Maxim Gorky. Letters (24 volumes; Ivan Turgenev. Letters (12 volumes); Alexander Block (20 volumes); Sergei Yesenin (7 volumes); Nikolai Nekrasov (18 volumes); Fyodor Dostoyevsky (15 volumes); Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai (6 volumes); Ivan Goncharov (20 volumes); Nikolai Karamzm (12 volumes); Alexander Pushkin (20 volumes). These publications contain all of the known versions of scientifically verified texts, and contain the fullest possible reference data and commentaries.

The list of current publications includes a 6-volume "Scholarly Legacy in Letters" (international correspondence) of Nikolai Vavilov, Problems of Proteins (4 volumes), History of World Literature (9 volumes), History of Europe (8 volumes), Space Biology and Medicine (5 volumes), Selected W)rks of Academician Yury Yaremenko (3 volumes), Winter \\&r. 1939 - 1940 (2 volumes), Minerals (6-volume reference book), Languages of the Russian Federation and Neighbouring States (3-volume encyclopaedia), Oriental History (6 volumes), History of the Caliphate (8 volumes), etc.

From the very start of its publishing activities the Academy has been constantly keeping in focus what we call serial publications (numbered or dated, in rare cases- both numbered and dated). Published at the present time are proceedings of scientific centers, bulletins, dictionaries, etc., such as Proceedings of the Paleontological, Geological, Mathematical, Physics, Physics-Technological and Zoological institutes; Institute of Biology of Inland Waters, Inter-Departmental Stratigraphic Committee, Department of Old Russian Literature of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkinsky Dom), Biogeo-chemical Laboratory, the P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanography, Commission for Studies of the Scientific Legacy of Academician V. Vernadsky, etc.

One can also mention in this connection Transactions of POM I (St. Petersburg Branch of the V. Steklov Institute of Mathematics), Izvestia (Proceedings) of the Main Astronomical Observatory in Pulkovo, Izvestia of the Special Astrophysical Observatory, Chronicle of Life and W)rks of Ivan Turgenev; bulletins of the Commission for Studies of the Quaternary Period of the Main Botanical Garden; Brief Notes of the Institute of Archaeology, Studies on Geomagnetism, Aeronomy and Physics of the Sun, Balkan Studies, Studies of History of Physics and Mechanics, Lower Plants, Vascular Plants, Systemic Informatics, Civilizations, etc.

One special group of on-going publications includes Dictionary of Russian Popular Dialects, Dictionary of Russian 18th century Writers, Dictionary of the Russian Language of llth-17th centuries, Dictionary of the Russian Language of 18th century, Dictionary of Russian Dialects of Siberia, Dictionary of Bibliophiles and Literature of Ancient Rus, Ethymological Dictionary of Slavonic Languages, etc.

The thematic spectrum of non-periodicals covers practically all area of fundamental research, education and culture*.

A basic component of the publishing activities of the Academy has always been and remains the publication of science journals-something which promotes the preservation and progression of the intellectual potential of our science, popularisation and putting into practice the results of scientific research.

* See: V. Vasilyev, "Academic Jubilee Publications", Science in Russia, No. 3, 1999.-Ed.

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As a rule the "founding father" of such journals has been the Academy of Sciences, although over the last several years new journals have been set up by specialized and regional branches of the Russian Academy and its research centers and establishments. In 2002 what we call general academic journals with the Academy "trademarks" were brought out by the NAUKA Publishers (Moscow) and its associated firms. Appearing with the NAUKA trademark have been 155 journals: 133 in Moscow and 22 in St. Petersburg. More than 25 journals were brought out of the publishing houses of the regional branches of the Academy (Siberian and Far Eastern ones), including publishing houses of research centers and/or institutes of the Russian Academy (sometimes with partners), and in a number of cases-the editorial boards of the magazines did so at the expense of non-commercial organizations and societies which they set up themselves.

By the range of subjects the specialized science journals accounted for the following shares of the total output of the academic network (in percent): physical and mathematical sciences-24.7 percent, sciences of life phenomena-19.7, humanities and social sciences-15.4, chemical sciences and sciences of materials-15.0; Earth sciences-9.3; technical sciences-7.8. Popular science journals occupied a niche of 4.3 percent and interdepartmental general academic journals-3.8 percent.

Over the past decade the publication of general academic journals has remained stable by the number of issues and the volume in printer's sheets. At the same time these years have been marked by a catastrophic drop in circulation of journals (they are too expensive for most of the individual subscribers): over a period of 10 years-by 12.5 times. And the structure of circulations has changed considerably: prevailing now are small circulation journals. Up until 2001 there was a sharp increase in the number of journals with circulations of up to 500 copies and a drop in the number of journals with circulations from 500 to 1,000 copies and over. Positive changes seem to be in the making according to subscription data for 2002: there has been a reduction of the share of the smallest subscription group (under 500 copies) with a simultaneous growth of the number of journals with big circulations.

It is interesting to note that after 1992 the scale of journals' publications exceeded that of books for the first time and this tendency continues to this day. In fact, journals have become the main tribune for publishing the results of fundamental research.

Rapidly progressing now is the International academic publishing company NAUKA/INTERPERIODIKA (MAIK NAUKA). It was established in 1992 by the RAS Akademizdattsentr NAUKA and the Pleades Publishing, Inc. (USA). The company is successfully dealing with its main task of translating and publishing in Russia academic journals coming out in English (more than 90), having thus become the main English-language publishing organization of the Academy. Russian and English versions of the magazines come out simultaneously. For foreign scientists MAIK NAUKA journals have become the primary source of information and a number of journals have been included into the Current Citation Index-the group of the most widely quoted publications. Over the past several years MAIK NAUKA has been actively developing its book-publishing program, having revived, among other things, the activities of the Publishing House of Physics and Mathematics.

Below is a chart demonstrating the scale of publishing activities achieved by the start of the jubilee year.

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Publications of NAUKA and other organizations of the Academy are in constant demand both in Russia and on the world book market. NAUKA books and journals can be seen at most of the prestigious international fairs and exhibitions. More than 70 percent of NAUKA journals are translated into English fully or in part. Scores of books published by NAUKA are annually reprinted in foreign languages. NAUKA has years of cooperation experience with partners like publishers and distributors of the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, China, Poland, Bulgaria and other countries.

NAUKA publications are constantly mentioned at All-Russia and international contests, professional ratings and in the press. The list of the best books of 2001 includes 4 NAUKA publications: Encyclopaedia of Low Temperature Plasma (Book Oscar and Diploma of Winner of the Contest "Best Entries of the 16th Moscow International Book Fair-Exhibition (MIBEF)", in the nomination of "The Best Scientific-Technical Publication" NAUKA has received an award together with the MAIK Nauka/Interperiodika; "Collection of Russian Folklore. Bylinas" (Honorary Certificate awarded by the 15th MIBEF in the nomination "Book of the Year"; "Science and High Technologies of Russia at the Turn of the Third Millennium" (Honorary Certificate in the nomination "The Best Scientific-Technical Publication"), "Invention of Johann Guttenberg: for the 600th Birthday of Johann Guttenberg" by Yevgeny Nemirovsky (Honorary Certificate in the nomination "Published in Russia" and Winner's Diploma of the contest of Russian Book Publishers' Association "Best Books of the Year").

In 2002 diplomas of the contest of Russian Book Publishers' Association "Best Books of the Year" were awarded to two publications: "Russian North-Ethnic History and Folk Culture. 12th-20th centuries" (Nauka Publishers), and a book mentioned before "Collection of Russian Folklore. Bylinas" (St. Petersburg publishing firm NAUKA). What is more, the book "Russian North..." won a Book Oscar in the Eureka nomination at the national contest "Book of the Year" (presented at the 15th MIBEF).

The publishing activities whose 275th anniversary is marked by the Academy this year, continue on the road of their evolution, keeping in step with the progress of our fundamental science.

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