HSE Publishing House Celebrates Its Anniversary and Goes to Red Square

© Mikhail Dmitriev/ HSE University

This year, the HSE Publishing House celebrates two anniversaries: 20 years since its foundation, and 10 years since the launch of multiple monograph series in the social sciences, economics, and humanities. The publishing house celebrated both dates by participating in the Red Square Book Festival.

The presentation at the Red Square Book Festival was entitled ‘Two Anniversaries of the HSE Publishing House: Outcomes, Achievements, Plans’. Elena Ivanova, the House director, discussed the publishing house’s books, where its digital and printed products can be purchased, and current projects.

After the talk, Alexander Pavlov, series project head at the HSE Publishing House, presented the House’s monograph series in the social sciences, economics, and humanities. He spoke about the most important and best-selling books of the series, which include 130 books from the past 10 years. The series project consists of four series: Economic Theory, Social Theory, Political Theory, and Cultural Studies.

‘The books published under the monograph series project in social sciences, economics, and humanities are not simply academic monographs: they are discussed, and they are often best-sellers both nationally and internationally. They have garnered wide responses and received reviews both in academic and non-academic media. We are proud of each and every book in the project,’ said Alexander Pavlov.

Over 200 Moscow publishers participated in the Red Square Book Festival (which is almost half as many in previous years) to promote their best-sellers and new releases. The festival featured a total of six zones on Red Square, including Non-Fiction, where visitors could find the HSE Publishing House’s stall. In addition, the festival featured an online zone, with live streams of presentations and videos of past years’ lectures and events.

The HSE Publishing House participates in the book festival on Russia’s most iconic square every year. This year, the department staff started preparing for the festival in February. Despite the coronavirus crisis, due to which many publishers decided to skip the event, the HSE Publishing House took part. According to Elena Ivanova, the new reality did not deter the House staff. ‘Everyone was very well-organized while working from home. The book editing staff executed the publishing plan as scheduled. From April to June, we prepared 23 books, including 14 papers for the April Conference. The sales department did not wait for the books to be printed and, for the first time ever, worked to organize ebook releases before the print copies were released.’ The partners also supported the publisher, providing contactless delivery of the titles during the lockdown. LitRes ebook publisher was also very helpful.

The HSE Publishing House specializes in monographs, journals, and textbooks in different disciplines (economics, management, law, mathematics, philology, history, psychology, and more). Today, academic monographs make up 90% of its production, and the rest is comprised of teaching and learning aids. The publishing house issues books by Russian authors (HSE University professors and leading lecturers), as well as translated books by international scholars. Over its 20 years of existence, the publisher has published about 2,000 book titles.

The Publishing House has extensive plans for the near future. To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, it will be publishing a book by Igor Orlov and Alexey Popov entitled,  Olympic Fuss: Triumph, Agony, or a Forgotten Soviet Modernization?, which features photos from the Novosti Press Agency archive. It will be followed by the annual HSE School Yard Book Festival on 20 Myasnitskaya, where the HSE authors present their new works.

‘These, of course, will include books from the monograph series project in the social sciences, economics, and humanities: translated books, such as Cities of Power by Göran Therborn, Will the Gig Economy Prevail? by Colin Crouch, and Class: A Guide Through the American Status System by Paul Fussell,’ said Elena Ivanova. ‘This year, we are also going to issue two books in the series, New Sources on the History of Russia. Rossica Inedita: Sibirskie Zametki by government official and writer Ippolit Kanarsky, and Projects by Baron Von Luberas, 1710s – 1720s. It’s impossible to list all our new arrivals, so I recommend that our readers to follow the updates on the Publishing House website’.

This autumn, the Publishing House is going to present a new book series, HSE Bibliothecа Selecta, which will include monographs with extensive visual imagery – art reproduction, graphics, photos, maps etc. The first book in the series will be Vilnius. City of Strangers by Laimonas Briedis, with photos of the city and its residents during the times of the Russian Empire. At the same time, the publishing staff work on a new edition of The Anatomy of Architecture by Sergey Kavtaradze.

Elena Ivanova also shared the publisher’s plans for the next two decades. ‘We are prepared to remain the best university press in Russia, which is open to everything new in publishing – in production, marketing, and distribution all across Russia and the globe’.