Rare books from Bookvica

St. Petersburg: tip. A. Transhelya, 1879. XVIII, 110, 192, [3] pp. 20х14 cm. Contemporary half leather with faded gilt-lettering on the spine. Original covers are preserved. Rubbed, private library ink stamps on the front pastedown, cover and last page, Soviet bookshop's stamp on the title page, owner's markings in text. Otherwise a very good copy. The first Russian translation of the most important work by Immanuel Kant (first originally published almost a century ago in 1788). In Russia Kant was an important figure, and attitude towards his philosophy work was complicated and ambiguous. With the development of high education different approaches to interpretation of Kant's philosophy have shaped. Perception of his work was particular for every town - Moscow, Kiev, St. Petersburg, Kharkiv. Kant's philosophy was spreading in waves (three overall), for example, at first it was introduced by professors Melman and Schaden in Moscow University who actively started to promote it; Karamzin published… Read More

Moscow, 1898. 15,7х10,6 cm. Photographed in the studio by V. Chekhovsky. Early Shalyapin's autographs are very rare. Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin (1873-1938) was a remarkable Russian opera singer whose vivid declamation, great resonance, and dynamic acting made him the best-known singer-actor of his time. He was very involved in his international carrier, and he had a great impact on the world of opera singing. In 1896-1899 he sang in opera house of Savva Mamontov. Those four seasons made him famous as he developed a lot and moved to performing first parts and solos.

Moscow: Tip. tov-va I.D. Sytina, 1917. 16 pp. In original printed wrappers. Covers rubbed with small tears of the spine. Piece of a contemporary newspaper with new alphabet glued to the front cover. Owner's pencil markings in the text. First book on a new Russian orthography with rules of the spelling and grammar and a scientific explanation of the reform. Pavel Nikitich Sakulin (1868-1930) - Russian doctor of philology and literature, member of Academy of Sciences. He was one of initiators of the Russian orthography reform. The orthography committee was created by Academy of Sciences in 1904. Some of suggested changes were pretty radical. It is widely believed that Bolsheviks and their despotism were the reason of this reform. True that the decree of the reform was first published just two months after the October revolution but it was being prepared for many years by the best Russian linguists of the time. Nevertheless this reform became the symbol of change that Bolsheviks were bringing for the… Read More

Berlin; Paris: Russkoe iskusstvo, 1921-1926. #1-14. Ca. 32x25 cm. Every issue in illustrated wrappers. Generally very good, some mild soiling, with tiny tears and losses of the spine (#1,2,12,14), foxing and piece of tape on the spine (#13). A complete set. Extremely rare in wrappers. Lavishly illustrated throughout with black and white and color plates with captions. Print run was approximately 300 copies. Zhar-ptitsa is 'perhaps the most famous of post-revolutionary art journals, whose contributors threw new light on the development of Russian art at the beginning of the twentieth century' (Fekula). By the early 1920s, a large Russian emigre colony had formed in Germany, and the hyperinflation that swept over the country turned it into a paradise for publishers who found the conditions under which the output of books was much cheaper than anywhere else in Western Europe. All this caused a 'Russian book boom' on the banks of the Rhine: about 50 Russian publishers worked in Berlin at that time.… Read More

Moscow: Kinopechat, 1926. 16 pp. 17,5x13 cm. Very good condition. Minor soiling of the wrappers. Portrait of the author on the rear wrapper.

Tbilisi: Zakkniga, 1926. 14 pp., 1 ill. 17.6x13cm. In original photomontage wrappers by Alexander Rodchenko. Tear of the spine, four pages are detached, soviet bookselling stamps on the rear wrapper. Otherwise in a good condition. First edition. 1 of 5000 copies. An epitome of Mayakovsky's inner struggle that had reached its peak in the mid-1920s. Conversation with a Tax Collector about Poetry is the first in a series of works publicly criticizing the new Soviet philistinism, according to which poets became compelled to pay taxes and submit annual declarations of income. Financial problems had always been an integral part of Mayakovsky's daily life: numerous trips around the country (which he often financed himself), his "lavish personality", and financial support he provided for his mother and sisters demanded large amounts of money: "I earn less, ... than I should. I can't keep up with my expenses". Yet, it was not the new law and additional levies it implied that enraged the taxpayer, but the… Read More

Full set for 11 years (1962-1972). Overall 132 issues in 22 cloth bindings (original blue wrappers preserved). Occasional foxing, damp stains (vol.2 1968), front cover damaged (#12 1968). Otherwise very good. Novy mir is one of the oldest monthly literary magazines in modern Russian. It has been published in Moscow since January 1925. It's base was Izvestiya publishing house, and in the first year it was edited and supervised by A.V. Lunacharsky and Yu. Steklov. At first, Novy Mir mainly published prose that approved of the general line of the Communist Party. In the early 1960s, it changed its political stance, leaning to a dissident position. The words ''Novy mir'', ''Tvardovski's magazine'' became symbolic, causing delight and respect among some readers, and gnashing of teeth among others (especially in official instances). A lot has been written about those years, about that edition, its fate, including on the pages of the magazine. Tvardovski's Novy Mir is one of the brightest pages in the… Read More

Moscow: Sel'khozgiz, 1940. [126] pp.: ill. 29x23 cm. In original cloth with gilt embossed design and gilt lettering on the front cover and spine (faded). Slightly rubbed, few defects of the back cover, some soiling of lower outer corner, otherwise very good. First and only edition. One of 5000 copies. Design by A. Belov. Illustrated throughout with black and white photographs and photomontages as well as three leaves with colored illustrations. Extremely rare with only copy located in Ohio University. One of the Soviet photobooks of animal husbandry connected with VDNKh pavilions. Richly illustrated, the edition opens with a woodcut title page; both chapters have half-titles with photographs of the appropriate pavilion. The books of VDNKh often start with its main entrance and this one shows a sculpture "Tractor Driver and Female Farmer" installed on a high pedestal (overall 13,5 meters) near the original (pre-war) entrance. In the 1950s the sculpture was changed and moved atop the entrance itself.… Read More

Saint Petersburg: Ory, 1907. 96, [8] pp. 13,5x10 cm. In original two-color printed wrappers with publisher's vignette (doubled on t.p.) designed by Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. Near fine. Second edition printed the same year. Rare. First Russian novel that openly discussed lesbianism. It was created by female poet and writer Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal (1866-1907) who was close enough to Narodniks, she was full of revolutionary ideas. Together with her second spouse, poet Vyacheslav Ivanov, she hosted symbolist meetings ('On the Tower', called because the meetings were held on the tower) and sponsored their small-run publishing house 'Ory' printing symbolist works. The novel was written in late 1906, but the censorship saw "the signs of a crime" (promotion of depriving behavior) and decided to forbid the book. The print run was arrested for a few months. By this time, the first Russian gay novel had already printed. Kuzmin's 'Wings' (1906) filled up the whole issue of 'Vesy'. The main periodicals of… Read More

Collection of eight brochures from the Soviet Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair [numeration is alternative]: 1) Prokofiev, A. The Palace of Soviets. 2) Papanin, I. The Soviet Wintering Station on the Drifting Ice. 3) Fyodorov, E. Scientific Work of Our Polar Expedition. 4) Komarovsky, A. The Moscow-Volga Canal. 5) Stakhanov, A. The Stakhanov Movement Explained. 6) Khazan, D. Light Industries of the U.S.S.R. 7) Bergelson, D. The Jewish Autonomous Region. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1939. 14,5x11 cm. In original illustrated wrappers with various design. Very good. Each pamphlet got a unique letterpress design, black & white or colored illustration, placed on both covers or the front cover only. As an exception, issue #1 features an embossed composition of the Palace of Soviets on the front cover. Among artists attracted were N. Lobanov (#1), B. Schwartz (#4), H. Klering (#7). All brochures contain black and white full-page photographs and small drawn vignettes. These… Read More

Moscow: Der Farband, 1932. 20 pp.: ill. 31x23 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Covers detached from the text block, tears to spine, small pieces of paper glued to the first and last pages, otherwise very good. One of 4000 copies. In Yiddish. An issue of the first Jewish atheist monthly that was published in 1931-1935. The Soviet authorities embarked on bizarre yet extensive propaganda against Judaism from the first months of the Soviet regime. Among the activities of the Evsection of the Communist Party (1918-1930) was a campaign against this religion. A number of "public trials" against such institutions as сheders, yeshivas and synagogues were staged in Kiev, Vitebsk, Rostov, etc. Closed and nationalized synagogues were turned into workers' clubs. Rabbis were blamed for both trotskyism and agitation against Birobidzhan; they were arrested, imprisoned, and exiled to camps. In 1925, the League of Militant Atheists was formed, and consisted of 5 million members by 1932 and about 22 million by… Read More

Vyg., 1835. 175 ff. 13,5x10,6 cm. A manuscript. 14 lines. Black and copious red ink. Each chapter starts with vyaz - a calligraphic script with ornamentation. Eleven decorated headpieces. Eight chapters have decorated endings that include birds and flowers in compositions. Gold is used in all of the headpieces and the endings. The manuscript also includes several dozen initials, each of which uses different colors at the beginning of the chapter, including gold. At the end of the manuscript, the floral composition with the date 1835 is featured. It is quite rare for this type of manuscript to be dated. The date is half-erased by previous owners. In red morocco binding over the thin wooden boards, gilt-tooled with floral borders, corner stamps, and central lozenge front and back, spine gilt in four panels of geometric patterns, edges gilt-tooled. One of the two original clasps preserved. An incredible example of the early 19th-century Old-Belivers' Northern Manuscript of Vyg (The Pomorian Creed)… Read More

Leningrad: Izd. Leningradskogo soiuza sovetskikh arkhitektorov, 1935. [6], 272, [10] pp.: ill. 30,5x24,5 cm. In original cloth with blind debossed lettering and a colored image on the front cover, blind embossed lettering on the spine. Tears of the spine, chipped, slightly soiled, otherwise very good. One of 3,600 copies. Title pages and names of the contributors printed on the verso side are in Russian and French. Compiled and edited by a number of people, including Andrei Belogrud who died before the edition was published. Cover design was produced by the Soviet Jewish graphic artist and type designer Mark (Meer-Vol'f) Kirnarskii (1893-1942). He studied at the Petrograd and Kyiv Academies of Arts under I. Fomin and G. Narbut, respectively. Kirnarskii joined the art group the Community of Painters in 1924 and in the same year became engaged in typography. He participated in the exhibition Book Art twice, first in Leipzig in 1927, and then in Paris in 1931. Layout was created by I. Antonov and I.… Read More

Berlin: Fremdsprachendienst-Verlags-G.m.b.H., 1941. #11 of 1941. 12 pp.: ill. 46x31,5 cm. Crease in the middle, minor foxing. Otherwise good. Extremely scarce. 1 issue from 18 published. By the late 1930s, Germany was home to over 50,000 Russian emigres who left their homeland shortly after the October Revolution. During the Great Patriotic War, Russian expatriates in Nazi Germany were faced with a choice between supporting the Soviet Union or the German power. This magazine was the voice of those Russian emigres who decided to back the Nazi regime. The periodical's editor was Vladimir Despotuli (1885-1977), a Russian journalist and publisher who served as an adjutant lieutenant under general Nikolay Baratov during World War I. After the Bolsheviks prevailed, he settled in Germany and initiated the Russian-language newspaper Novoye Slovo [i.e. New Word]. The periodical was funded by the Nazi party's foreign affairs office and featured anti-Semitic and anti-Soviet articles. In 1943, two years after… Read More

Odessa: Yugo-LEF, 1924. 16 pp. 26,5x18 cm. In original constructivist wrappers. Spine, wrappers, outer corners of pages restored, otherwise very good. Between the last leaf and the back cover, one advertisement from a pre-revolutionary book is inserted. The second of five issues produced. One of 3000 copies. Extremely rare. Cover design created by Nikolay Sokolov (1904-1990). He designed all issues, except for the first one. Yugo-LEF as the group existed for less than a year. It was formed in April of 1924. The editorial board of the magazine included three writers - Leonid Nedolia, Semyon Kirsanov, Sergey Bondarin, and two artists - Nikolay Sokolov and Nikolay Danilov. Ukrainian-born poet Leonid Nedolia became the main manager of the group. At that time he just returned from Moscow where he was the editor-in-chief of the satirical periodical 'Krysodav' [i.e. The Rat-Crusher], so he worked with Mayakovsky, Igor Terentiev, Kruchyonykh, Meyerhold, Dmitrii Moor, etc. Over the course of the year, the… Read More