Book publishing in Soviet Estonia, like most other industries, was based on planning. When a book was scheduled or planned for publishing, people pre-ordered it. Years later, the book actually came out, and your pre-order form was mailed back to you as a notification that it was time to go and actually buy the book.

With popular books, if you didn’t pre-order, there was no book for you. Unless of course you worked in a book store or had connections who did. Book shops did have books on their shelves, so some must have been generally available as well.

The process in the book store involved several steps. First you went to one desk and asked for the book or books you wanted. The grumpy lady there added up their prices, quite probably on a wooden abacus, and handed you a small piece of paper with the sum. You then walked to the cash desk where another lady punched in that sum into a cash register, took your money and handed you a receipt. With the receipt in hand you walked back to the first desk, where you exchanged the receipt for the actual book. Oh, and there was most likely a queue at each step.

This is what a book store looked like:

Source: Tapa muuseum, where you can also find more.

Here is an example of an advertising poster for pre-ordering the collected works of Lev Tolstoy:

Source: Estonian National Library Digital Archive, where you can also read the official state instructions for the pre-ordering process.

Nõukogude Eesti raamatukirjastus põhines plaanimajandusel, nagu ka enamus muid tööstusalasid. Kui mingi teose väljaandmine oli planeeritud, siis said inimesed seda tellida. Aastad hiljem tuli raamat lõpuks välja, su tellimisblankett saadeti sind teavitamaks sulle koju, ja siis läksid ostsid selle ära.

Populaarsemate teostega oligi nii, et kui ei tellinud, siis ei saanud. Kindlasti oli võimalusi, kui sa ise raamatupoes töötasid, või kui sul seal tutvusi oli. Raamatukauplustes oli mingeid raamatuid riiulites, nii et midagi pidi ka üldiselt saada olema.

Protsess raamatukaupluses koosnes mitmest sammust. Kõigepealt tuli minna ühe leti juurde ja seal paluda soovitud raamatut või raamatuid. Leti taga seisev morn naisterahvas liitis nende hinnad kokku, tõenäoliselt puidust arvelaual, ja andis sulle pisikese lipiku kogusummaga. Selle lipikuga kõnniti kassa juurde, kus järgmine daam summa kassaaparaati toksis, sinu raha võttis ja sulle kassatšeki andis. Tšekiga mindi tagasi esimese leti juurde, kus see raamatu vastu välja vahetati. Ja loomulikult eelnes igale sammule tavaliselt järjekord.