[ocram]

Congratulations, mroatman!
Alan gave you a very good tip! The Popova Goldberg used to be a text book for the clockmaking and watchmaking institutes in USSR and it still is an excellent book. You'll love it |>

Also, an interesting tidbit for English natives: the table of contents is at the back of the book. This took me by surprise, but I have since learned this is a typical feature of Russian books.

Another typical information provided is circulation, i.e. how many copies were printed. My copy of Popova Goldberg reports Тираж 40 000 экз. (short for экземпляр.) Since there have been at least three or four editions of this book, and all with similar circulation, this is probably one of the most widespread watch-making books ever written.

// ocram

Interesting. Love to know what is being discussed on pages 14 and 15 with all the penciled exclamation points.

P.S. The penciled parts are about high precision clocks in USSR, in which (!) the authors mention the (quite controversial, yet very precise) Fedchenko astronomical pendulum clock, and go on with the first quartz clocks made in USSR in 1938. On the opposite page, more penciled parts about monk Lazar the Serb and the Kremlin tower clock he made in 1404, and Russian astronomer and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765.) Sort of history of timekeeping achievements from the other side of the Iron Curtain.

 

[ocram]

Is there a way to tell which edition mine is? It must be somewhat early with only 27,000 copies printed and a copyright of 1970.

Sure Putting our data together, plus a little supplement, we now know that there have been five editions of the Popova Goldberg spanning over almost 20 years! Here we go:

• 1st ed. 1970, 416 pp., circulation 27,000 copies (thanks, mroatman!)
• 2nd ed. 1973, 446 pp.
• 3rd ed. 1976, 480 pp., circulation 40,000 copies
• 4th ed. 1982, 368 pp.
• 5th ed. 1989, 415 pp., circulation 75,000 copies (thanks Surok55!)

All editions were published by Vysshaya Shkola, Russia's biggest publishing house (see OJSC "Vysshaya Shkola Publishers")

Here is the table of contents, as well as the back cover with an interesting watermark.

The nice watermark is Vysshaya's logo, it says Издательство "Высшая школа" Москва, 1970 годы, published by Vysshaya Shkola, Moscow. Here's another one.

Unfortunately, no information is provided on the glorious Type-I. In general, the technical information on the earlier soviet pocket watch calibers is very scarce.
A huge resource to glean information from is German Polosin's website. He put several Russian books online at Ëèòåðàòóðà ïî óñòðîéñòâó è ðåìîíòó ÷àñîâ including the 5th edition of the Popova Goldberg.
Happy reading

// ocram