THE MAIN TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF BOOK PUBLISHING IN THE USSR IN THE 1960S – 1980 S
Authors: Оношко Богдан 
Published: January 2025

The article deals with the development of publishing in the Ukrainian SSR in the 1960s–1980s. The author analyzes how the imperative approach to managing book publishing was manifested in the formation of the publishing repertoire, the range of books, and large editions of socio-political literature. The peculiarities of the development of publishing in the Ukrainian SSR in the 1960s–1980s, the functioning of publishing houses and their diversity are determined. The main periods of reforming the publishing industry and legislative acts are characterized: 1959 (Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee «On the Establishment of the Main Department of Publishing, Printing and Book Trade (Golovpoligrafvydav) within the Ministry of Culture of the USSR»); 1960 (Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee «On the incorrect practice of organizing new publishing houses»), 1963 (Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine «On the regulation of publishing in the republic and increasing the role of publishing houses in economic and cultural construction»); 1964(joint decision of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education and the State Committee on the Press of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR «On the Publishing Houses of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv State Universities»); 1965 (Law of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR, according to which the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR on the Press was reorganized into the Committee on the Press under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR); 1971 (resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine «On the state of the book publishing industry in the republic and measures to improve it», which resulted in the creation of the publishing association «Vyssha Shkola» on the basis of the publishing houses of Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv universities, as well as the «Vyssha Shkola»); 1972 (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, according to which the Committee on the Press under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR was transformed into the Union-Republican State Committee of the Council of Ministersof the Ukrainian SSR for Publishing, Printing and Book Trade). It is summarized that by the mid-1970s, the process of forming the structure of book publishing in Ukraine was finally completed. The article describes the book publishing network in accordance with the order of the State Committee for Publishing of the Ukrainian SSR «On Clarification of the List of Publishers of the Ukrainian PCP». It is noted that in the 1970s and 1980s, the attack on Ukrainian book publishing intensified, and the strictness of censorship led to the emergence of samizdat. During the perestroika period, several decrees and directives were issued that weakened the ideological dictates, in particular, the Regulationson Thematic Planning and Coordination of Literature Production in the Soviet Union. In 1988–1989, commercial publishing houses began to be created under various foundations, creative unions, unions, associations, etc. However, their activities in independent Ukraine were also characterized by negative trends, as the domestic book publishing industry stagnated.