Mir Publishers (Russian: Издательство "Мир") was a major publishing house in the Soviet Union which continues to exist in modern Russia. It was established in 1946 by a decree of the USSR Council of Ministers and has been headquartered in Moscow since then. It was completely state funded, which was the reason for the low prices of the books it published. Its scope was domestic and translated special and tutorial literature in various domains of science and engineering: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, agriculture, transport, energy, etc. Many Soviet scientists and engineers were its contributors. The staff provided translation from original Russian. In addition, during the Soviet times it was known for translated foreign scientific and popular science books as well as science fiction. Many of Mir's books were and are used as textbooks for studies of science in many countries. The publishing house survived after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and was eventually privatised and later expanded its scope by incorporating a number of state publishing houses: Kolos (Колос), Transport (Транспорт), Khimiya (Химия), Metallurgiya (Металлургия), Legprombitizdat (Легпромбытиздат), and Energoatomizdat (Энергоатомиздат). In 2008, the company faced a bankruptcy case. The case was closed by the Moscow Arbitral Court on June 2, 2009 because the publishing house had paid completely the debt to the creditors. Note: its old domain, mir-publishers.net, is squatted. Source: Wikipedia (en)