Quote Originally Posted by LXNDR View Post
this was because the books which were really in demand (as the articles says: фантастика, детектив, приключенческая литература или авантюрный роман) were published in scarce numbers and a single other way of getting these without night long waiting in line on occasional sale campaign, was buying them from illegal resellers at a higher black market price
I do not think that any detective, sci-fi or adventure was a deficit. But good books were indeed. But as I already said this was because all books were so cheap that people bought very many books. By 1990s I had 5 bookcases (2 of which were cupboards actually) filled with books each shelf in two rows, plus 16 separate wall shelves, plus the space under a divan plus entresol above the entrance plus a heap in the closet box.

Quote Originally Posted by LXNDR View Post
since book publishing was a state enterprise controlled by the Party, it mainly promoted works loyal to the regime and what the regime wanted people to need rather than what they really needed, although I don't deny that there were worthwhile books inside the heaps of published waste paper
Yes. What the people needed was decided by the Gosplan as anything that was produced. They had plans how many detectives the people need, how many adventures and so on. This was calculated "scientifically" based on people's free time etc. But they did not account that many people just bought more books than they could even theoretically read (many wanted to look "learned" by having a large library and many wanted to pass the books to their children etc).