Eesti Riiklik Kirjastus
Eesti Riiklik Kirjastus (' Estonian State Publisher') was the universal publisher of the ESSR from 1949 to 1964, based in Tallinn .
History of the publisher
With the annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union in June 1940, the free market economy and private ownership of means of production in Estonia ended. The existing publishers were dissolved. It was replaced by five state publishers whose areas of responsibility were thematically delimited and reflected in their names: "Political Literature", "Educational Literature", "Scientific Literature", "Beautiful Literature and Art" and a newspaper publisher. Interrupted by World War II , this structure was resumed after 1944. On December 1, 1949, however, the four book publishers were merged into a unified publishing house under the name "Estonian State Publishing House"; the newspaper publishing house was only retained for the periodicals.
Renaming / split 1965
In 1965 the publisher was renamed Eesti Raamat ('Estonian Book'), combined with a renewed split: From then on, pedagogical, (popular) scientific and non-fiction literature was published under the new publisher name Valgus ('Light'), while Eesti Raamat was reserved for beautiful literature.
Secondary literature
- Eesti raamat 1525-1975. Ajalooline ülevaade. Tallinn: Valgus 1978.