Vorontsov-Velyaminov, B. A. The Universe (Vselennaya). 1947. In Russian.

Воронцов-Вельяминов Б. А. Вселенная.
Москва; Ленинград: ОГИЗ, Государственное издательство технико-теоретической литературы, 1947. — 488 с., ил.
Твёрдый издательский переплёт, обычный формат.
Состояние хорошее: переплёт потёрт по краям, у головки и хвоста корешка незначительная бахрома, кремовое полотно слегка пожелтело; блок крепкий, страницы чистые, текст и иллюстрации сохранны.
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Vorontsov-Velyaminov B. A. The Universe.
Moscow; Leningrad: OGIZ, State Publishing House of Technical-Theoretical Literature, 1947. — 488 pp., illustrated.
Publisher's hardcover binding, standard format.
Condition good: binding rubbed at edges, slight fraying at spine head and tail, cream cloth lightly toned; text block tight, pages clean, text and illustrations sound.

This early postwar volume by Boris Aleksandrovich Vorontsov-Velyaminov (1904–1994) — one of the most influential Soviet astronomers of the twentieth century, professor at Moscow State University and founder of Soviet extragalactic astronomy — offers a sweeping survey of contemporary astrophysics for the educated general reader. Issued in 1947 by the State Publishing House of Technical-Theoretical Literature, the book belongs to a small group of authoritative Soviet popular-science works produced in the immediate aftermath of the war, when the regime sought to rebuild scientific literacy and assert the prestige of Soviet astronomy on the international stage. Vorontsov-Velyaminov draws on his own research at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute to discuss stellar evolution, galactic structure, the nature of nebulae, the chemistry and dynamics of interstellar matter, and the most pressing cosmological questions of the day, including the expansion of the universe and the still-unresolved problem of cosmic distances. His later atlas of interacting galaxies (1959), the so-called "VV catalogue," remains a standard reference and lent its initials to a class of objects studied by every major observatory.