"[T]he last refuge of the Soviet avant-garde" (Svetlana Boym)

MUKHA TSOKOTUKHA [The Chatterbox Fly]

By Kornei Chukovsky, illustrated by Vladimir Konashevich

1934

Second edition of graphic artist Konashevich's illustrated edition of the cheerful, musical poem about "the most famous fly in Soviet children's literature" – known for its veiled anti-Stalin message.

Near fine.

Price: $200.00

MUKHA TSOKOTUKHA [The Chatterbox Fly]

"Mukha Tsokotukha, a great adventuress and the muse of every Soviet child" - Svetlana Boym

First published in 1924 as MUKHINA SVAD'BA, in this book a simple fly is captured and almost killed by a spider, which has traditionally been read as an allusion to Stalin. While some demanded the book be banned, Chukovsky's reputation as a central figure in the field kept the book in circulation. Called "the greatest innovator and pathfinder in Soviet children's literature" (Maria Nikolajeva), Chukovsky tried to help threatened artists under Stalin by providing them with work and connections. Svetlana Boym describes the connection between children's literature and avant-garde artists in the Soviet era: "Children's literature had a unique function in the Soviet tradition: from the 1930s through the 1970s it served as the last refuge of the Soviet avant-garde. In the 1930s, many experimental poets, including Oleinikov and Kharms, later killed in Stalin's camps, were given work by Kornei Chukovsky [...] Thus, memories of childhood, the history of the oppression of alternative art and compromised strategies of survival are closely linked for an ex-Soviet artist." All early editions of this book are scarce.

Read more: Boym, The Future of Nostalgia, 321; Tumanov, "Writing for a Dual Audience in the Former Soviet Union," in Transcending Boundaries (ed. Beckett), 135-6.

The Object

Leningrad [St. Petersburg] / Moskow: ОГИЗ [OGIZ], 1934. 8.75'' x 7''. Original side-stapled color printed wrappers designed by Konashevich. Illustrated by Konashevich in black and white throughout. [16] pages. Some light soiling and toning to edges of wrappers. Overall beautifully preserved.

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