Bibliomania (a passion for collecting books) was quite common in the USSR. People would buy entire collections of works. For example, Jules Verne or Alexandre Dumas. Of course, you couldn’t just buy something like that in a store. You had to either get it or get it for handing in waste paper (but not for free either). Then these books would stand in beautiful rows in bookcases.
And I also inherited several such collections.
Let’s start with the complete works of V. I. Lenin. Having something like this is considered cool now, and it was cool back then. But there is an assumption that no one has read a single book from this collection. And in general, I doubt that anyone has read anything from it. Although if, for example, they gave an assignment at a university, then perhaps it would be possible to take notes. It is convenient to have literature at home, rather than going to libraries.
There is also a collection of works by another communist, Maxim Gorky.
The top shelf contains the collected works of M. Gorky, the bottom one contains V.I. Lenin (from a personal collection)
Collected Works of M. Gorky in Thirty Volumes, State Publishing House of Fiction, Moscow, 1952 (from personal collection)
The photo shows that only 20 volumes remain.
V.I. Lenin, Works, State Publishing House of Political Literature, Moscow, 1941 (from personal collection)
The collection looks a bit outdated. But you have to understand that these books are almost 100 years old! And the storage conditions are far from museum-like.