[KONASHEVICH] Sto oktiabriat [i.e. One Hundred Little Octobrists]

Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1930. 20 pp.: ill. 18,5x17 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Tears of edges, stains occasionally, original black and white illustrations colored by hand.

Very rare.
Brilliant children's book about the practice of waste paper gathering and involvement of little octobrists in it.
Soviet writer Ivan Belyshev (1894-1942) was a former military officer who left the service in 1927. He debuted in the early 1930s, wrote a range of popular stories and contributed to a number of periodicals for children.
The edition was illustrated by artist Vladimir Konashevich (1888-1963) who could be rightfully seen as the second author. His earliest children's book was 'ABC in Pictures' (1918); he totally devoted himself to children's books in 1922. In that year, Konashevich had designed several fairy tales by C. Perrault and A. Pushkin. These editions came out in Berlin, due to the high quality of German reproducing watercolors. In the following years, colorful books with his illustrations were published in Russia - like other children's artists of that time, Konashevich preferred lithography. He became famous for prolific collaboration with Samuel Marshak, but he produced much more children's books and also contributed to magazines 'Novyi Robinzon', 'Chizh', 'Iozh', 'Koster' and 'Murzilka'.
In this book, Konashevich created a visual story about little octobrists who were solving the problem of the lack of paper for school notebooks. In the style of 1920s children's books, he depicted them moving through pages without any background. Konashevich used the Chinese ink and brush only to produce these affecting images. Sizes of illustrations vary and blank spaces remain occasionally, but no matter how large they are, pictures attract attention.

Not found in Worldcat.