[2] The idea of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia emerged in 1923 on the initiative of Otto Schmidt, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In early 1924 Schmidt worked with a group which included Mikhail Pokrovsky, (rector of the Institute of Red Professors), Nikolai Meshcheryakov (Former head of the Glavit, the State Administration of Publishing Affairs), Valery Bryusov (poet), Veniamin Kagan (mathematician) and Konstantin Kuzminsky to draw up a proposal which was agreed to in April 1924.

"[7] The GSE, along with all other books and other media and communications with the public, was directed toward the "furtherance of the aims of the party and the state.

Operating on Marxist-Leninist theory, the encyclopedia should give a party criticism of contemporary bourgeois tendencies in various provinces of science and technics.

expanded on that mission, paying particular attention to developments in science and technology: nuclear engineering, space technology, atomic physics, polymer chemistry, and radio electronics; also detailing the history and activities of the Russian revolutionary movement, the development of the labor movement worldwide and summarizing Marxist scholarship on political economy, sociology, and political science.

described as the role of education: To develop in children's minds the Communist morality, ideology, and Soviet patriotism; to inspire unshakable love toward the Soviet fatherland, the Communist party, and its leaders; to propagate Bolshevik vigilance; to put an emphasis on internationalist education; to strengthen Bolshevik willpower and character, as well as courage, capacity for resisting adversity and conquering obstacles; to develop self-discipline; and to encourage physical and aesthetic culture.

A. Vvedensky stating their compliance with the 1949 decree of the Council of Ministers: It is just this simple for the Soviet board of editors.

They are working under a government directive that orders them to orient their encyclopedia as sharply as a political tract.

The encyclopedia was thus planned to provide the intellectual underpinning for the Soviet world offensive in the duel for men's minds.

And the government attaches such importance to its political role that its board of editors is chosen by and is responsible only to the high Council of Ministers itself.

The Soviet Encyclopedia is a systematic summary of knowledge in social and economic studies with an emphasis on applied sciences.

Every aspect of Soviet life is systematically presented, including history, economics, science, art, and culture.

[13] The Encyclopedia, though noted as having a strong Marxist bias, provides useful information for understanding the Soviet point of view.

[14][15] Following the arrest and execution of Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the NKVD, in 1953 the Encyclopedia—ostensibly in response to overwhelming public demand—mailed subscribers to the second edition a letter from the editor[16] instructing them to cut out and destroy the three-page article on Beria and paste in its place enclosed replacement pages expanding the adjacent articles on F. W. Bergholz (an 18th-century courtier), the Bering Sea, and Bishop Berkeley.