published from 2003-2018
Copies of two different editions of the Большая советская энциклопедия (Great Soviet Encyclopedia) are available in the University of California's Southern Regional Library Facility. You can request individual volumes from this encyclopedia through our Interlibrary Loan Service.
To place a request choose a link below, use the volume-to-letter guide in the Contents note to determine which volume(s) you need, sign in and look for the Interlibrary Loan link under "How to Get It". Be sure to indicate which volumes you want in the "Comments" field of the ILL form before submitting your request.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia. New York : MacMillan, 1983-1993
Main Library AE55.B613 1970
English version of Большая советская энциклопедия.
An excellent resource for understanding how different topics were viewed in the Soviet Union. This resource would have been available to Soviet citizens through the extensive public library system in the USSR.
Search topics in the Index volume first. Each English volume corresponds to a Russian volume, so entries are not in English alphabetical order.
Also available in the Russian original. See the "Encyclopedias in Russian" box on this page for more information.