!!!Extreme rarity!!! Azimov, A. I, robot. Science fiction stories. The first book in Russian Publishing house "Knowledge", 1964. 176 p.: ill. 20x12.5 cm. In publisher's illustrated cover. In a good condition. Isaac Asimov's first book in Russian. The first edition in Russian of stories from the famous collection, which radically changed the idea of robots. The author of the preface was Ivan Efremov. The book, like all foreign science fiction of the 1960s, was considered in short supply and was an extremely desirable acquisition. Today it is extremely rare in good condition. A native of Russia, Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) “could have become a science fiction writer in the USSR,” he wrote in his memoirs. The Ozimov family emigrated to the United States in 1922. During the “thaw” era, after the lull of the 1950s, the USSR experienced a boom in robots, robotics and cybernetics. Azimov had an extremely friendly attitude towards the USSR of that period, and spoke with admiration of Soviet scientific achievements in the early 1960s. worked on compiling the anthologies Soviet Science Fiction and More Soviet Science Fiction. His loyalty to the Union alerted the FBI, and in 1965, Boston University professor Isaac Asimov was put on a list of scientists who could be recruited by the Communists. They tried to identify him with a Soviet spy from scientific circles, operating under the pseudonym Robprof. The investigation lasted two years, but did not reveal any suspicious political connections among the science fiction writer. The word "robot" first appeared in 1920 in Karel Capek's play R.U.R. In 1950, Isaac Asimov developed the Three Laws of Robotics in his stories “I, Robot,” revolutionizing the idea of smart machines and “making” them serve people. The idea turned out to be viral: until the 1980s. Robots that did not obey the three laws were almost never seen either in literature or in cinema. Isaac Asimov first appeared in the Soviet press in 1962: the story “A Sense of Power” was published in “The Seeker,” a supplement to the magazine “Around the World.” And starting in 1964, when Znanie published his first collection, he was actively published in the USSR. The translation of the stories was carried out by Alexey Dmitrievich Iordansky (1936–2004) - journalist, translator, one of the creators and editor of the magazine “Chemistry and Life”. In 1996 he became deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine, but in 1998 he emigrated to Germany. Among science fiction writers, he translated, in addition to Asimov, van Vogt, Garrison, Simak, Heinlein, Sheckley, Brown. The crowning achievement of his translation skills are considered to be the translations of Somerset Maugham's novels.