![Tserkov' i gosudarstvo i drugiia stat'i [Church and State and other essays]](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/30379673191-600x877.jpg)
Tolstoi, L[ev] N[ikolaevich]
Octavo (19.5 × 13.5 cm). Original printed wrappers; [5], 6-55 pp. Publisher's ads inside wrappers. Light tears to overlapping wrapper edges; text lightly toned; wrappers beginning to detach along spine head; still a sound, uncut and unopened copy. First edition thus. An émigré publication of a selection of Leo Tolstoy's religious essays, all of which were banned in the Russian Empire. After the great success of his "Anna Karenina" (1878), Tolstoy began to focus on religious writings, producing such works as "My Confession" (1879-1880), which led to his open conflict with the Orthodox Church. The conflict, fueled by his other writings, would eventually lead to his full excommunication in 1901. Among Tolstoy's many complaints against the church was its approval of the sovereign state, which inflicted violence and waged war, actions he believed incongruous with the teachings of the church and of Christ. Other works included in the collection are: "O tserkovnom obmane" (On Church Lies), Kak chitat' Evangelie i v chem ego sushchnost" (How to read the Gospels and what is their essence), "O religioznom vospitanii" (On religious education), "O veroterpimosti" (On religious tolerance). The title essay of this collection seems to have been written in 1882, and was never finished, nor was it approved by the author for publication. Tolstoy sent the unfinished (and untitled) essay to his friend, Gavrila Rusanov, who seems to have titled it and released it into underground circulation. The essay first appeared in Berlin, at the Cassirer and Danziger publishing house in 1891 with distortions and omissions. This edition was included in the internal catalog of the General Directorate for Press Affairs (the highest censorship body in the Russian Empire) for 1894 as "prohibited from circulation and re-printing in Russia." The essay was next published in the "Complete Works of L. N. Tolstoy, Banned in Russia", by the "Free speech" publishing house, in England (1904). In Russia, the essay would appear only after the 1905 Revolution when the censorship laws were slackened by the "Renewal" publishing house (St. Petersburg, 1906, No. 8). This edition contains a publisher's catalog to inside of front and rear wrapper. KVK, OCLC show print copies of this edition at Harvard, Duke, Princeton, Ohio, Wisconsin, Colorado, UCLA, Berkeley, UCL, UNSW (Sydney), and Melbourne.
Seleznev-Skib, Leonid
Octavo (23 × 15.5 cm). Original printed wrappers; 87 pp. Light foxing to wrappers; slight water damage to rear wrapper, still about very good. First and only edition. A curious work of "utopian sociology," this text was likely self-published by a Russian émigré in New York shortly after WWII. The introduction to the text explains: "This book takes the reader into the distant future. In this book, the reader will find the history of the way the American people, soon after the end of the 2nd World War, solved the great problem of universal peace, and saved humanity from the impending catastrophe and laid the foundation for its future development in the spirit of universal understanding, and justice." The text then takes the reader through the failures of European politics of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the dominant social and economic orders such as monarchy, democracy, socialism and capitalism. The author finally explains how the United States came to European and world rescue. Scarce in the trade.
![Zhenni Porten [Henny Porten]. Pamphlet produced by the Soviet state publisher for cinema](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==)
URAZOV, I[zmail Alievich] and Naum SOKOLIK, illustrator
Octavo (14.5 × 11.5 cm). Original illustrated wrappers by Naum Sokolik; 16 pp. Photo-illustrations throughout. Light soil to wrappers; trace of moisture to upper right corner, not affecting text; still about very good. A NEP-era movie fan booklet dedicated to Henny Porten, the first German film star of the silent era, written by the film, theater and circus reviewer Izmail Urazov (1896-1965). The Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War (1918-1922) devastated the Russian and Soviet film industry. Due to widespread film and equipment shortages, foreign productions came to dominate the Soviet screen, a fact often commented upon in the Soviet press. With the introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP), a hybrid of communism and capitalism meant to jumpstart the Soviet economy, German film companies among others, brought their films to the newly open Soviet market, with fan materials such as this booklet helping to popularize specific film stars and sell tickets to their films. An editor of "Circus" magazine and a prolific reviewer, Urazov wrote similar pamphlets dedicated to other German silent stars such as Greta Garbo, Asta Nilsen, Ossi Oswalda, and Harry Liedtke. This as well as Urazov's other pamphlets were published by the NEP-era publishing house Kinopechat' (1925-1927), later known as Teakinopechat (1927-1929), which published both serious theoretical film literature by formalist theoreticians such as Boris Eikhenbaum and Viktor Shklovsky and film directors such as Vsevolod Pudovkin, as well as popular film materials. Most of Kinopechat' profits came from the sales of fan posters, post cards and booklets of domestic and foreign film stars such as this one. By 1929 the sale of these 'bourgeois fan materials' caused a scandal at the publishing house and the publisher started printing literature on "kinofikatsiia derevni" (the spread of the cinema into the villages) which was more in line with the first five-year plan (1928-1932). Nevertheless, the publishing house was soon closed. KVK, OCLC show copies at Art Gallery of Ontario, British Library, Yale, UNC Chapel Hill, and Berkeley.
Fridland, L[ev Semenovich]
Octavo (20.3 × 14 cm). Original pictorial wrappers by Niklavs Strunke; 214, [1] pp. Wrappers lightly worn and chipped to corners; discrete Soviet Latvian bookstore stamp to rear wrapper; else about very good. Third expanded edition (first published in 1927 in Leningrad and Paris, with this Riga edition published the following year). Aimed at a popular audience, the book tells dozens of stories from the practice of a venereal disease specialist, Dr. Lev Friedland, who was intent on educating the broader public by unmasking the causes and spread of the various sexually transmitted diseases. According to the author, women and children were especially vulnerable to the spread of the 'unmentionable' diseases and he hoped to mend this by writing a popular text based on case histories. The book was Friedland's first literary venture and brought him immediate success, with four editions, including one in Estonian and one in Turkish, printed within the first few years after the initial publication. Perhaps because of the frank descriptions of human sexuality, the unflinching accounts of poverty and early Soviet sexual mores, the book was banned in the Soviet Union starting in 1930. The newest edition was published in 1991. The wrappers were designed by the Latvian avant-garde artist and illustrator Niklavs Strunke. Lev Friedland (1888-1960) was a Soviet doctor and author of popular medical literature. Initially educated at the Medical Academy in Kiev he graduated with a medical degree in Rostov-on-Don in 1918. From 1929 he switched his focus to writing entirely, authoring over a dozen popular medicine titles including books on medicine for children and young adults. KVK, OCLC show only two copies of this edition, at NYPL and UCLA.
Obshchestvo Revnitelei Kubani, Kollegiia Kubanskikh Kazakov
Octavo (24.7 × 18 cm). Original photo-illustrated wrappers; 32, [2] pp. Illustrations throughout. Traces of former binding to spine of one issue; holes from binding to both issues; slightly resized to binding; else about very good. Two issues (of the three published) of the highly esteemed, though short-lived émigré publication of the Kuban Cossacks in France. The historian Irina Gorlova writes: "Among the impressive abundance of Cossack periodicals of the two interwar decades, the journal favorably distinguished itself through a good selection of authors, high-quality materials and a general high culture of the publication. This is explained by the fact that the Society of the adherants of Kuban acted as the publisher, uniting the amateur military historians of Kuban in emigration, and that the magazine was edited by the "College of Kuban Cossacks" with the active participation of the International Union of Kuban Writers and Journalists." In addition to comissioned articles and literary sketches, the issues contain abundant historical material, photographs, maps and reminiscences gathered by the journal editors through an open call, included on the last page of the publication. The journal ceased publication due to the internal conflict within the International Union of Kuban Writers and Journalists. Of special literary and historical interest are essays by S. A. Fedotov, F. Eliseev, A. Medianika, Gen. Lomako. KVK and OCLC show complete sets (nos. 1-3) only at Indiana and UNC, with NYPL and the British Library holding only the first issue.
Octavo (23 × 15.5 cm). Original illustrated self-wrappers; 48, [2] pp. Gift inscription, apparently to General A. P. Arkhangel'skii (1872-1959). Slightly resized; else about very good. The final special issue of the annual White émigré publication "Kazaki zagranitsei", dedicated to the newly elected Cossack Ataman in Bulgaria, Count Grabbe. The issue is composed of Grabbe's speeches, decrees and descriptions of his business trips and meetings. Count Mikhail Nikolaevich Grabbe (1868-1942) was the last Ataman of the Don Cossacks, appointed to the position in 1935. In 1890, Grabbe graduated from a military academy in St. Petersburg, eventually distinguishing himself in WWI. After the October Revolution, Grabbe moved his family to Yugoslavia, resettling in Paris in 1925. A convinced monarchist, he took part in the First Monarchist Congress in Berlin in 1921 and was a member of the Society of the Adherents of Memory of Emperor Nicholas II. After the German attack of the Soviet Union in 1941, he was also instrumental in the creation of the Russian Protective Corps, made up of Russian émigrés who fought on the side of the German forces, with the aim of protecting White émigrés from the harassment by partisans who sympathized with the Soviet Union. Founded in Sofia in 1927, the "Kazaki zagranitsei" published annual reports on the life of the Cossacks in Bulgaria and other countries. Like many of the Cossack publications, its run seems to have been interrupted by the start of WWII, with this issue being the last. With a gift inscription to General A. P. Arkhangel'skii to the top of front wrapper, slightly cropped. KVK, OCLC show only one copy of this last issue, at UNC Chapel Hill.
Vertsinskii, Eduard Aleksandrovich
Quarto (19.5 × 17 cm). Later brown buckram, original wrappers not preserved; 60, [1] pp. Stamps of Bibliotheque de l'union Galipoli, Paris, and Lycee Russe Empereur Nicolas II to title and first page. Light wear; overall about very good. First edition. The first of three memoirs by the White émigré officer Eduard Vertsinskii (1873-1941), this text describes his experiences in the first year of the Russian Revolution, under the command of General Kornilov and as the first quartermaster general of the Main Directorate of the General Staff. A nobleman, Vertsinskii began his service in the Russian Imperial Army in 1890 and took active part in WWI. After the fall of the White Army, Vertsinskii was forced to flee the Bolshevik regime, immigrating to Estonia in 1923. In 1929 he published this first memoir. His second memoir, dedicated to his experiences in WWI, "Iz mirovoi voiny: boevyia zapisi i vospominaniia komandira polka i ofitsera general'nogo shtaba za 1914-1917 gody" (From the World War: battle notes and memories of the regiment commander and an officer of the general staff for 1914-1917) was published in Tallinn just two years later. His memoirs provide invaluable information about the military actions by their immediate participant. After the annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union in 1941, Vertsinskii was arrested and sentenced to death. Savine 17509. Scarce in the trade.
Octavo. Original decorative wrappers by Ivan Mozalevskii; 133, [1] pp. Fifteen titles and end decorations by S. Segal'. About very good; spine neatly repaired; hand-written label to spine strip; small stain to front wrapper. Contains prose by Gleb Alekseev, Aleksei Tolstoi, Vladimir Lidin, Savvatii, O. Savich, Aleksandr Drozdov, G. Magnitskii. KVK, OCLC show copies at University of Toronto, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Wisconsin-Madison; and in Europe at Basel, DNB Leipzig, Ljubljana, Giessen, Stabi Berlin.
Bukh, Tamara
Octavo (18 × 11.5 cm). Original staple-stitched, illustrated wrappers; 18 pp. Owner inscription to title and front wrapper; light soil and foxing to wrappers, very good. A poem dedicated to the centennial of Pushkin's death, written by Russian journalist Tamara Bukh, living in emigration in Estonia. As a "national poet" Aleksandr Pushkin had great symbolic significance among the white émigrés, who had to leave Russia fleeing the Bolshevik regime. While the Bolsheviks presented Pushkin as a revolutionary anti-monarchist (because of his early connections with the Decembrists), the émigré intelligentsia emphasized Pushkin as the standard bearer of high Russian culture. Pushkin societies, reading circles, and émigré editions were especially common, with the author of this poem heading one such society in Narva starting in 1936. Bukh also published widely in White émigré newspapers such as "Vesti dnia" and "Russkoe slovo". KVK, OCLC show only one copy at the British Library. Uncommon Pushkiniana published in the year of the Pushkin centennial.
Gor'kii, Maksim (Gorky, pseud. of Aleksei M. Peshkov)
Octavo (19.5 × 13.5 cm). Original stiff cream wrappers; [4], 24 pp. With publisher's catalog on rear wrapper verso. Very good; wrappers lightly dust-soiled; original price of 50 Pfennig struck through and replaced by "Mk. 1" One of the earliest appearances of any part of Gorky's "Skazki ob Italii" ("Tales of Italy"), created 1911-1913, during the writer's first period of exile in Italy. The short texts are based largely on his own experiences traveling through the country, as well as on newspaper reports about the life of Italian workers. In Russia, the first book-length collection of the tales appeared in 1912. Some of the tales were censored, however, and could only appear in revolutionary and social-democrat periodicals. The present edition appears to precede the Russian book publication: published in 1911, it represented an early version containing only the first three segments. The fully expanded collection of tales was published a year later by Ladyschnikow, in 1912, bearing the same Russian title, but with the German subtitle "Märchen der Wirklichkeit."
Dmitriev, N. V.
Large octavo (24 × 15.5 cm). Original printed wrappers; [3], 15 pp. Light wear to wrappers; spine extremities begining to split; internally very good. A pamphlet by the Russian architect Nikolai Vsevolodovich Dmitriev (1856-1918). The title refers to the October Manifesto, the precursor to Russia's first constitution, formulated by Sergei Witte on Nicholas II's behalf following the Russian Revolution of 1905. Inspired by the University Extension Movement in England and similar efforts to bring education to the people, the author issues an impassioned plea to open a Municipal People's University in order to fulfill the promise of cultural and political enlightenment among the masses. After overviewing the Extension movement in practice, Dmitriev provides a detailed plan, which includes initial budgetary considerations. The following year would see the creation of one of the most successful peoples' universities in Moscow, sponsored by A. L. Shaniavskii. Rare; not found in KVK, OCLC. Not in RGB, the only copy being located at the Russian National Library.
![Zhenni Porten [Henny Porten]. Pamphlet produced by the Soviet state publisher for cinema](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/30379670393-600x777.jpg)
![Za zakrytoi dver'iu: zapiski vracha-venerologa. S predisloviem Prof. B. Khol'tsova [Behind the closed door: notes of a venereal disease specialist]](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/30379669438-600x855.jpg)
![Kubanskoe Kazachestvo. "Les Cosaques de Kuban". Istoriko-literaturnyi i illiustrirovannyi zhurnal [The Cuban Cossacks. A historical literary and illustrated journal]; Nos. 1-2 (of three published)](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/30379667617-600x815.jpg)
![God revoliutsii: vospominaniia ofitsera general'nogo shtaba za 1917-1918 goda [The year of the revolution: memoirs of an officer of the general staff of 1917-1918]](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/30379664824-600x714.jpg)
![Odisseia: zarubezhnyi sbornik. Kniga pervaia [The Odyssey: an anthology of exile. Book 1] (all published)](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/30370281385-600x864.jpg)
![Skazki. Märchen. [Tales]](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/30370278560-600x876.jpg)
![Kak uvekovechit' velikii osvoboditel'nyi akt 17-go oktiabria [How to immortalize the great liberating act of October 17].; (Otkroite narodnyi universitet i organizuite ego tak](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/30370108918-600x907.jpg)
