One of the very first physics books that I had purchased in Nagpur from the used book sellers which was not a story book was a book by Aldina Tarasova and Lev Tarasov. The title of the book was Questions and Answers in School Physics. The book was written in style of dialogue between a teacher and students, with misconceptions of the students explored in all branches of basic physics at the school level.
To put it in the words of the authors themselves:
(Reader) will find this text to be perhaps more like a freely told story or, rather a freely conducted discussion.
This is a book on physics education. But apart from this book there are other wonderful books by these authors. The English edition of this book was published in 1973 and was translated from the Russian by Nicholas Weinstein.
You can download this wonderful book from here.
I do not know if there are translations of this book in Indian languages, if you know of any please let me know.
The second book that I got of Tarasov was Basic Concepts of Quantum Mechanics. This is again a gem of a book. Many of my misconceptions in Quantum Mechanics got cleared from this book. The book also has prelude and interlude where a classical physicist and a quantum physicist (the author) argue about many interesting physical and philosophical matters pertaining to physics.
The aim of this book is to acquaint the reader with the concepts and ideas of quantum mechanics and the physical properties of matter; to reveal the logic of its new ideas, to show how these ideas are embodied in the mathematical apparatus of linear operators and to demonstrate the working of this apparatus using a number of examples and problems of interest to engineering students.
The English edition was published in 1980. I definitely know that there is a Bengali version of this book, but am unaware of any other translations in Indian languages. Please let me know any other Indian languages that you are aware of.
You can download this book from here.
One more amazing book by Lev Tarasov is titled This Amazingly Symmetrical World. This book explores the concept of symmetry starting from everyday concepts and going all the way upto symmetry in Quantum Mechanics. This is one of the few Mir books which were technical and was printed completely in color. I know only of English hardbound edition of the book. I do not know if translations in other Indian languages exist.
You can get the book here.
Calculus by Tarasov is one of the most elusive books that I have been after. I was told by someone that this book exists, I did not see any advertisement of this book, in the back of any book. And I searched in vain in all the libraries and contacts that I have, but could not find it. Then a friend of mine located it through the wonderful internet resource called http://worldcat.org . This particular website has catalogs of books from the thousands of libraries of the world, and what is interesting is that, if your library is part of their network then you can get books from other libraries as inter-library service. So he got hold of the book (in a month’s time ) and send me a scanned copy.
Thanks to Anish.Dot for the scan.
You can download the book from here.
Another copy of the book can be obtained here. Thanks to Dr. Narayanan for this copy.
Lev Tarasov has also written 3 books on lasers. Their titles are Laser Age in Optics, Laser Physics and Applications and Laser Physics. In this I do not have the last one. Laser Age in Optics is a popular science book concerned with new trends in optics arising from development of the laser. The book has clear and concise description of many of the concepts in lasers and holograms and many things which are usually ignored are also talked about and is presented for a school level student.
You can download this book from here.
Password, if needed: mirtitles
The English edition was first published in 1981 by Mir Publishers. The book titled Laser Physics and Applications (English translation published in 1986) is a bit more technical and can be a good textbook for beginners of a laser course. I have not seen the contents of the book just titled Lasers, the English edition was published in . I do not know if there are translations of any of these 3 book in Indian languages.
Discussions on Refraction of Light: I have given description of this book in the Science for Everyone series. But I am mentioning this book again with some details. The book is lively and written with lot of historical anecdotes and good problems at the end of each chapter.
Why does a beam of light change its direction when passing through the interface between two media? Why does the setting sun appear oblate on the horizon? What causes mirages? Why does a prism disperse sunlight into different colours? How can one calculate the angular dimensions of a rainbow? Why do distant objects appear close when we view them through a telescope? What is the structure of the human eye? Why does a light ray get broken into two in a crystal? Can the plane of the polarization of a ray be turned? Can light rays be bent at will? Is the refractive index controllable?
This book will give the reader answers t o all these questions. He will get to know how the law of refraction was discovered, how Newton’s theory of the refraction of light in the atmosphere was nearly lost forever, how Newton’s experiments changed radically the old ideas concerning the origin of colours, how the telescope was
invented, how it took twenty centuries to understand the anatomy of human vision, and how difficult it was t o discover the polarization of light. To make the historical and the physical aspects of the book more convincing, the authors have introduced a number of problems and their detailed solutions, geometrical constructions, and optical diagrams of some instruments and devices. No doubt, the reader will get a better understanding of some excerpts from the classics of physical optics (for example, Newton’s “Optics” or Huygens’ “Treatise on Light”) after they have been illustrated with the help of diagrams, constructions and concrete problems. Thus, as he explores the world of refracted rays, the reader will be able to familiarize himself not only with the physics of the topics being considered but also with the evolution of some of the concepts of physics and their practical applications to problems, constructions and optical schemes. It is the authors’ hope that this journey will be both instructive and enjoyable.
This book was first published in English in 1984 by Mir in the Science for Everyone series. This was found by using world cat mentioned above.
You can download the book from here.
I do not know if there are translations of these books in other Indian languages.
So these are some of the books by the wonderful authors to whom I am grateful for a lot of things that they have taught me from their books. And I think a lot many people who are out there who will have a resonating feeling inside them. If there are any other books by Lev Tarasov and Aldina Tarasova that are not mentioned here please let me know.
Update: Gordon has pointed out another book by Tarasov it is titled The World is Built on Probability and was published by Mir in 1988. It was translated from the Russian by Michael Burov. I have not seen this book, so lets hope this one gets through to the electronic media soon. Okay we have the book.
The World is Built on Probability by Lev Tarasov here.
Want Magnet Links/ Torrents, go here.
Problems? See FAQs
Mir Books 
– calculus book , the link is missing “You can download the book from here.”
– same for “Discussions on Refraction of Light”, link for download is missing when you supposedly provided it.
– pls provide links if you have
PS : you are really cool man for this effort and dedication … . I have been following your many blogs on this subect. btw I am eagerly waiting for the day when you will put the scanned copies of all the MIR books you have in net or torrent. (I know for some reason you are not uploading all of them, not sure why). MIR books were simply awesome. I grew up reading them. They definitely sparked the scientific interest in me. Looking at those books I also realize why India will be always scientifically many many steps behind Russia etc.
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RRP,
Thanks for the kind words.
I have updated the links and also added the link for Laser Age in Optics.
Already many of the scans of these books are on the internet, but soon I will also put the links on the earlier posts.
Keep watching!
D
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Thanks Damitr
– many MIR books in net i have already downloaded. (I keep googling for them for days on end and downloaded whichever is there :-P)
– but you seem to have the biggest collection of them all and many which you have are not available in net. (whenever you feel like and have time pls put)
– Have you seen “russica” ? Some of them are from Progress Publishers. These books are mainly Fiction ,Childrens Literature, Sci fi, Fantasy etc. (site is gone, but still in Archive)
http://web.archive.org/web/20100624104515/http://home.freeuk.com/russica2/index.html
– I have some MIR books in my native place which i didnt see anywhere else. Some day i can scan it and put on net. I dont have a scanner yet. Which scanner is best for this task ?
On the way to Super Elements – Flerov
Tales about Metals I – Venetsky
Tales about Metals II – Venetsky
Story of Periodic Table –
Physics Olympiad problems – Krotov
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Hey thanks for the link! I did not know about this one.
I am going to put a post soon on some of the titles that you have mentioned, particularly pertaining to the Periodic Table and Elements.
You can have any scanner (as long as it scans), but post processing is more important.
For some post processing tips, tricks and Free Software packages to do so check out : http://wp.me/parsq-y
You can construct your own book scanner with a digital camera. Check out the amazing site: http://www.diybookscanner.org/ .
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Damitr,
Hi, Its wonderful to see some good MIR publications over her
e.Seems there is no link to tarasova Symmetrical World.Amazed at your dedication for a noble cause .
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Saji,
Thanks for pointing this out, I have updated the link.
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Awesome collection… Thanks a lot for providing the links of all these books. I am looking for irodov’s books. As for as i remember he wrote 5 books. I have only the ‘problems in general physics’ one. Any idea where can i get the other ones?
Thanks in advance
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hi
thank you ! thank you my friend ! you helped me to download his book about symmetry (i had never seen this book). Tarasov and Perelman were two great teachers of my childhood and youth who inflamed the love of physics and mathematics in my heart and made me a teacher and writer of physics and mathematics in my country (Iran) !where is he now ? is he alive ?
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Hi,
I do not know about Tarasov and his wife, there seems to be very little known about them apart from what is mentioned in the introductions of the books. Yakov Perelman died long time back in the siege of Stalingrad in 1942.
D
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Pingback: Updates… | Mir Books
Mr Damitr,
I need the link for Tarasov and Tarasova’s Questions and Problems in school physics. The link is not working. Could you please help me.
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Yes, most links are dead. Will try to update them soon.
D
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Thank you Damitr. Would like to see the links working soon.
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Please up the ‘Science for Everyone’ links…. I am in desperate need of it Damitr.
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I concur with whatever you said about MIR publications. I do have some books.
1) Physics II
A General Course by L V Savelyev
1) Hand book of Physics by Yavorsky and Detlaf
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I stumbled upon this blog today searching for Lev Tarsov’s “This Amazingly Symmetrical world”. I request to know the password. And I have a xeroxed copy of Tarasov’s “the world is built on probability”. Please contact me as soon as possible.
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For password, check at end of the post. As for the World is Built on Probability can you scan them? It would be easy then to process the rest. Otherwise the physical copy has to come to us, which would take more time. If you are planning to scan, do it with at least 300 dpi, anything lower is mostly unusable. Tell us what is suitable.
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Do you live near Hyderabad? It would be great if you did because there is a guy here who has a huge collection of mir books and sells their xerox copies. if you don’t, I will see an alternative.
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What is the name and contact number of this guy in Hyderabad
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Can u please pass on the contact details please? i would like to buy the books… thanks in advance…
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I did not understand your question.
D
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hi I wanted to know the details of the person who sells the photo copies of the mir books and is located near hyderabad….. this is related the information posted by Tech Namethan
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The link to refraction of light is dead. Could you please update the link.
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Hi What is the password to extract
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Look in the post.
D
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after downloading when zip files are extracted it says the file is damaged.Please help.
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What extractor are you using?
Try some other extractor.
D
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Man How to download any of the books, download link redirects to ilivid down load site only
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can u please reupload the discussions on refraction of light file.?
and why not use a file sharing site that doesnt delete your file after a few days ? or u enjoy that people ask you to upload again n again ?:D
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All the problems that people are stating, are applicable to all the sites, though some were not problems at all, maybe they could not pass the Turing test. As regards to deleting of files, there is no guarantee that other sites wont delete the files in the future. And it was only once that all files of particular types (pdf, djvu) got deleted. It is not as if the site is deleting files “after few days”. In case you don’t know read this.
D
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please update the link for discussions on refractions of light !
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and also can u please find the book ” this world is built on proababilty . I cant seem to find the book n e where . would be a great help if you can help . as discussions on refraction of light is also available on your site only .
if available i would like to buy both these books , if cash on delivery option is available . thank you .
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That is a book we are also looking for.
These books are *not* available, they are out of print since USSR fell off.
D
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when will you update the link for refractions of light ?
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@Tech Namethan
please can you scan and upload the book on net please . i reli want to read tht book . it’ll be a very big help from you to many a people who too want to read that book . thank you .
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thanx a lot damitr for updating the link . reli u rock man !! 😀
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hey after extracting it shows an error..plz help friends..i really want these books..
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See the FAQs
D
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thanks damitr…gr8 job buddy..also very good books..
plz check the file for ‘Basic Concepts of Quantum Mechanics’…its absent..
also plz upload ‘the world is built on probability’ if possible..
thanks a lot again..
ratnakar
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Link updated. Check. Though I remember updating the link earlier also when I made this Update. Something got screwed up while saving the post, I guess. Thanks for reporting.
D
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works fine..
thanks a lot..
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It’s Here
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HI Damitr,
I have a problem. I’ve been trying to use my old scanner but I lost the installation CD. The scanner is ‘Mustek 1200 UB Plus’. I use Windows 7 and the site has software only till xp. Here are the links.
http://www.mustek.com.tw/Download/html/install_xpc_eng.html
http://www.mustek.com.tw/Download/driv_scanr/europe/1200ubplus.html
Is there a way I can install the software without changing to xp? It can’t be auto installed because the scanner doesn’t have a button. It must be operated through the system.
And can you explain me what ‘dpi’ is?
Also, I only have a xeroxed copy of ‘The world is built on probability’. The quality is good, but it is in black and white.
P.S. I couldn’t reply early because I was busy with my engineering entrances.
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I think you have figured most of the things out as asked in this comment, (this I know from the comment that you will be making in future (and I have already replied to it ;)), so I won’t be replying to these.
But have a look at the SANE project, it might just help
http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html#Z-MUSTEK
PS I couldn’t reply earlier as I was not near a computer.
😀
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Hey Damitr, my previous reply was removed. I scanned the first 4 pages of the book. As I mentioned before, I have a very old scanner(Mustek 1200 UB Plus) and it has just 3 qualities of scan. I scanned the first 3 in normal quality(199 dpi) and the 4th in its best(299 dpi). Also, as I previously mentioned, It is a black and white xeroxed copy, but a very rare one in that. If you still want it, reply back. I will send you the scans and you edit them.
http://ifile.it/djoskyn
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Hi,
The comment was not removed, I had to approve of it, it is now there. Sorry for that, but have to keep out the spamming. The images that you have sent are just fine and are very crisp.
Choose .TIFF or .TIF as output format, they take much lesser space than .BMP and are much better for compression than .JPG or .PNG. Rest should be fine. Thanks for taking initiative for this.
regards
D
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BTW you can check the cleaned results of the sample that you have sent here.
D
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Wow, the cleaning is awesome. I will complete the scans and send you in a few days.
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http://www.mediafire.com/?putx8xbs0ml2p
I am uploading the scans. I scanned the first four again in a different quality.
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I did not yet finish uploading. I am uploading as I type.
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Thanks. In this folder I have found 22 .bmp files for pages 1-43. Can you upload the remaining ones as a single zipped files?
D
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Mediafire is giving me hell. I was uploading single files because I have a slow connection and there are a lot of power cuts here. I will upload 5 at a time now.
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Its okay, take your time. We have waited for so long, a few more days should not matter. Cheers!
D
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Alternative links from 4shared (thanks to Biju)
http://www.4shared.com/rar/uU3-ePQ1/tarasov-Clclus.html
http://www.4shared.com/rar/Bc53l4yN/tarasov-LasrAgeInOptcs.html
http://www.4shared.com/rar/xzVcmDR3/tarasov-qm.html
http://www.4shared.com/rar/EVPKqbK4/tarasov-Refrctn.html
http://www.4shared.com/rar/Tp8p33EI/TArassv_aswrsInSchlPhyscs.html
pass: www(dot)mirtitles(dot)org
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Good information.thanks.
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Hi Damitr… can you please give link for International Maths Olympiads books…
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Some of them are already there. Just take some effort to browse.
D
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Hi damitr.I recently downloaded Questions and Answers in School Physics
Lev Tarasov, Aldina Tarasova.it’s a wonderful book but page no 37 and 38 are missing.i shall be highly grateful to you if you could arrange for the missing pages.
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i was in search of ‘calculus:basic concepts for high schools by l v tarasov since many years. my boy is now in eleventh class n it is the right time i got this book.thanks a lot for i could get an e-copy to day. i consider this book as the best one for the beginners to understand calculus. hats off long live tarasov books. i wish mir publishers republish all the titles of tarasov in near future
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Please update the link for Calculus book its showing 404 error. Please I request.
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Any body found the book titled “Anatomy an Physiology By Tatarinov. Please Update
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Could you please send me the passwordo to unzip the book Basic Concepts of Quantum Mechanics. I would be very thankful.
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Please read the FAQs.
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Tahnks a lot. I could extract the file.
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pl log on to http://www.archiv.org for an excellent free download of ‘calculus basic concepts for high schools’ by l v tarasov…p.sampath kumar
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Sir, thank you so much! The resolution of QASP is stunning! Just as if I’d bought it online!
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p sampath kumar, can u please provide pdf format download for ‘discussions on refraction of light’ by lev tarasov and tarasava
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dear dmitr. i am p.sampath kumar from bangalore . i have nice well maintained good original book of ‘diseases of ear, nose and throat by A.G.LIKHACHEV MIR PUBLISGERS Moscow with me.I purchased this book sometime during 1988 (english version) . i want to send this original book to u. But how to send it. Will u guide me. thanking u. I am in Bangalore India.
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Hi guys I found this one from the same authors so thought you’ll find it useful:
The World Is Built On Probability
here is the link: https://archive.org/details/TheWorldIsBuiltOnProbability
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For “Basic Concepts of Quantum Mechanics” below a working link
https://archive.org/details/BasicConceptsOfQuantumMechanics
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I need page no 36 and 37 of Questions and problems in School Physics by LV Tarasov. I have got the book but these two pages are not available.If any body can send me at prbhat_79@yahoo.co.in
Thanks
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Hi damitr.I recently downloaded Questions and Answers in School Physics
Lev Tarasov, Aldina Tarasova.it’s a wonderful book but page no 36 and 37 are missing.i shall be highly grateful to you if you could arrange for the missing pages. Send me at prbhat_79@yahoo.co.in
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Hi damitr.I recently downloaded Questions and Answers in School Physics
Lev Tarasov, Aldina Tarasova.it’s a wonderful book but page no 36 and 37 are missing.i shall be highly grateful to you if you could arrange for the missing pages.
Please send me at prbhat_79@yahoo.co.in
Thanks
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There is a missing page number 85 in the calculus book, this link contains that page https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxsb2N1c21hdGhlbWF0aWNzfGd4OjI4OThiMzU5ZDM1MTcyNzQ
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thanks for pointing out, will incorporate it
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Damitr,
Here’s the Bengali version of the book:
http://urss.ru/cgi-bin/db.pl?lang=en&blang=en&page=Book&id=28057
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Calculus is here :
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