Quote Originally Posted by Eric C. View Post
«Политика всеобщей грамотности преследовала цель наполнить бюджет. Грамотные люди покупали книги и газеты, и это наполняло бюджет СССР не меньше, чем покупка водки»;
This is not true. The books were always sold in the USSR below their production cost and orders of magnitude cheaper than in other countries.

This was an official policy of the party: even the main justification for removal of the final hard sign from the language was to reduce the price of the books. I remember reading at school the claims that the bourgeoisie specially kept the language difficult, used more letters and kept the book price high to prevent the poor from getting knowledge.