Sovetskii Pisatel

(Soviet Writer), a publishing house of the Writers’ Union of the USSR, founded in 1934 in Moscow. Sovetskii Pisatel’ publishes books of Soviet Russian writers and Russian translations of books by writers of all the other republics of the USSR. Translated books account for approximately 40 percent of the annual output of the publishing house. The publication of the Large and Small Series of Biblioteka poeta (The Poet’s Library), which was founded by M. Gorky, is an important part of the activity of Sovetskii Pisatel’. The publishing house has a branch in Leningrad.

Since 1957, Sovetskii Pisatel’ has been headed by an administrative board, members of which are confirmed by the Writers’ Union of the USSR. N. V. Lesiuchevskii has been chairman of the administrative board since 1958. In 1974, Sovetskii Pisatel’ published 375 book and brochure titles, amounting to 14.951 million copies and 324.185 million printer’s sheets.