Acknowledgements
The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project no 18-52-15031 НЦНИ аnd the FICUSOV Joint Research Project 1917–1941 (Financing of Soviet Culture) CNRS — UMR Eur’ORBEM.
Abstract
The analysis of the copyright payments made by “Academia” sheds new light on certain key aspects of the publishing activity. In direct contradiction with the ideology of the socialist construction, the pecuniary motivation of these men of letters appears to have had a subtle but nevertheless important impact on the production of“Academia.” One could even go so far as to suggest that in certain cases, the desire for the personal gain was the key factor in publishing decisions made by the press. The principle of a revolutionary editorial policy is ultimately nothing but an illusion, serving to conceal practices which have very little to do with “socialism.”
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