STARYE KUKLY [Old Dolls]
1930
Satirical Soviet picture book ridiculing famous political figures, one of the books critical of Russian history that led to Bedny's fall from grace under Stalin.
Very good.
Price: $850.00
Satirical Soviet picture book ridiculing famous political figures, one of the books critical of Russian history that led to Bedny's fall from grace under Stalin.
Very good.
Price: $850.00
"Revolutionary workers [...] are greedily studying the instructive history of Russia's working class, its past, and Russia's past. And you? Instead of comprehending the greatest of all revolutionary processes in history [... you are] proclaiming to the whole world that Russia in the past was a vessel of abominations and desolations." – Stalin, letter to Bedny, December 1930
Bedny was a well-placed Bolshevik writer whose poetry led to a friendship with Lenin, and later a turbulent relationship with Stalin. "His status and willingness to turn out rhymes in defense of the latest turn in party policy on short notice made him a rich man, a car owner, and the only writer to be allocated rooms in the Kremlin" (Andy McSmith) – and Stalin was known to borrow books from Bedny's enormous library. In the same year this book was published, Bedny was censured by a Central Committee resolution for another work. Stalin wrote Bedny that he was making Russia look bad by poking fun of its past. In 1932, after Bedny produced yet another work that Stalin disliked, Stalin evicted Bedny from his Kremlin apartment. A few years later, the famous agitprop writer was officially expelled from the party.
This book was illustrated by the Kukryniksy, a collective group of satirical artists who would become famous for their political cartoons during World War II. Scarce, with no auction records.
Read more: McSmith, Fear and the Muse Kept Watch: The Russian Masters from Akhmatova and Pasternak to Shostakovich and Eisenstein Under Stalin, 223-225.
(Moscow): Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo, 1930. 7.75'' x 6''. Original side-stapled color printed wrappers. Illustrated by Koukryniksi in color with 9 caricatures of historical figures. [8] pages. A little unevenness in printing; rubbing along spine, some edgewear.
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