Raduga Publishers Bengali Books [TESTED]

Mitali began her search. Every library catalogue she checked showed the same thing: no results . But then, at the , a kind archivist led her to a dusty, forgotten shelf in the basement. There they were — squat, sturdy hardbacks with bright, stylized illustrations. Misha and the Bear. The Little Humpbacked Horse. Fairy Tales of the Peoples of the USSR.

“Raduga,” the professor said, tapping a faded cigarette case, “means ‘rainbow’ in Russian. And for a generation of Bengali children, that rainbow brought stories from Moscow to Maniktala.”

Why did they do it? The Soviet Union wanted soft power. But the Bengali readers wanted stories. For a few decades, a child in Howrah could read about Russian snow maidens alongside Sukumar Ray’s nonsense verse, thanks to this quiet rainbow. raduga publishers bengali books

That was the missing link. never had a store in Kolkata. Instead, they collaborated with Allied Publishers (and later, the state-run Bookland in Esplanade) to distribute their translated books in India, including Bengali titles, as part of a cultural outreach program.

She called the professor. “They exist,” she whispered. Mitali began her search

She did. There was a small, rubber-stamped oval: “Allied Publishers Private Ltd., Calcutta – Sole Distributors.”

“Of course they do,” he chuckled. “But look at the inside back cover.” There they were — squat, sturdy hardbacks with

Mitali’s research became a small exhibition. Older visitors wept seeing the covers. “This book taught me that snow exists,” one said. “We never saw snow in Bengal, but we felt it through Raduga.”