Толковый Словарь русского языка

The Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by S. I. Ozhegov is the very first of those published in Russia (USSR) after the October Revolution, and today a unique one-volume explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. For the first time in Russian lexicography, a one-of-a-kind explanatory dictionary was compiled - a normative manual accessible to all, created to help improve the culture of speech of the general public and designed to serve as a guide to the correct use of words, the correct formation of word forms, correct spelling and pronunciation. In this dictionary, from the entire huge variety of vocabulary of the modern literary Russian language, its extract was formed, in a concise and accessible form, the traditions of Russian literary speech that developed in the middle of the last century are described. Work on the dictionary, which appeared for the first time in 1949, began immediately before the Great Patriotic War. The initial edition of the dictionary was compiled by prof. V. A. Petrosyan, G. O. Vinokur, as well as acad. S. P. Obnorsky as chief editor.

S. I. Ozhegov did not stop working on the dictionary until the end of his life, improving its composition and structure. In the supplemented and revised version, the dictionary was published twice during his lifetime - in 1960 and 1952 (the rest of the versions were stereotyped). The second and fourth editions of the dictionary, revised by the author, radically differed from the first in volume (it became more by almost 40 author's sheets) and also in content. S. I. Ozhegov was going to prepare a revised and enlarged edition for publication, but death prevented the implementation of these plans.