20th century: Dissidence & Emigre

Image for I. BRODSKII. Ostanovka v pustyne [Halt in Wilderness]. First edition, inscribed. New York, 1970. #2

Inscribed to a Jewish émigré journalist at BBC Russian

Ostanovka v pustyne [Halt in the Wilderness; also A Stop in a Desert]

Chekhov, Niu Iork, 1970. £3,500

First edition of this important poetry collection by "the most popular Russian poet of the second half of the 20th century" (Shubinskii). A fine example of the first issue, boldly inscribed.

Image for M. ZAITSEV. Three Russian Children Books. First editions, colour issue. Harbin, 1930s. #2

China-printed children books - the colour variant

ZAITSEV, M. V. [publisher]

Three Children Books: Liagushka-Tsarevna, Ivanushka i Alenushka, Baba Iaga [The Frog Princess; Ivan and Alenushka; Baba Yaga]

Kharbin, Zaitsev, [1930s]. £1,450

Attractive Russian children books produced in Kharbin, all three in the colour version and in fine condition.

Image for B. PASTERNAK. Doktor Zhivago. First edition. The Hague, 1958. #2

The remarkable CIA-backed first edition of a Nobel Prize

PASTERNAK, Boris

Doktor Zhivago

G. Feltrinelli, Milan [but Mouton, The Hague], 1958. £17,500

One of the most famous first editions of 20th-c. Russian literature: published by the CIA under a false imprint - or literature as a political weapon. A pleasant copy.

Image for ZHIGANOV-JIGANOFF. Russkie v Shankhaie. Russians in Shanghai. First edition. Shanghai, 1936. #2

Fascinating and impressive panorama of Russian emigration in China

ZHIGANOV – JIGANOFF, Vladimir

Russkie v Shankhaie. Russians in Shanghai

Slovo, Shanghai, 1936. £5,750

Fantastic publication on the important Russian community in 1920s-30s Shanghai. Wide-ranging, very richly illustrated, with a wealth of fascinating details. A lovely copy of the first edition, scarce.

Image for V. EROFEEV. Moskva-Petushki. First edition. Paris, 1977. #2

"One of the major achievements of Russian prose of the 20th century" (Oborin)

EROFEEV, Venedikt

Moskva-Petushki [Moscow-Petushki, also translated as Moscow to the End of the Line]

Floch, Mayenne, for YMCA-PRESS, Paris, 1977. £2,750

First book edition of one of the most famous Russian novels of the last century and a celebrated 'tamizdat'. Uncommon on the market, here in attractive condition.

Image for M. BULGAKOV. Master & Margarita. Complete, uncensored text. Second edition, Frankfurt, 1971. #2

The complete, uncensored text - with the striking dust-jacket

BULGAKOV, Mikhail

Master i Margarita [Master and Margarita]

Possev-Verlag, Frankfurt/M., 1971. £1,750

Bulgakov's masterpiece in its entirety, complete with the famous dust-jacket. A very good copy, fresh internally. This is the 1971 second printing.

Image for SHANKOVSKY, L. Istoriia UPA. Ukraine, early 1990s. #2

Pre-Soviet nationalists in post-Soviet Ukraine

[SHANKOVSKY, Lev]

Istoriia UPA [History of the UPA]

[Ukrainian SSR or Ukraine, early 1990s]. £475

Rare 'publication' -or samizdat- focusing on the history of its now famous Ukrainian resistance group. No other copy traced outside Ukraine.

Image for [SERGEI MIKHAILOVICH ROMANOV]. Sbornik. First edition, Novyi Sad-Belgrade, 1934. #2

Rare and richly illustrated

LASHKOV, S.I

Ego Imperatorskoe Vysochestvo Velikii Kniaz Sergei Mikhailovich.. [His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich [...] Reminiscences about His Life and Work, and about the Development of Artillery during His Lifetime]

S. Filonov, Novyi Sad, for Izd. tsentraln. Pravlen. Russkikh Ofitserov Artilleristov za-rubezhom, Belgrad, 1934. £375

Scarce émigré work commemorating a prominent member of the Romanov family, active during WWI and shot by the Bolsheviks; first edition, published in Yugoslavia (now Serbia).

Image for HERZEN. Byloe i dumy. First complete edition of Herzen's main work. Belrin, 1921. #2

Not a friend of Romanovs' Russia

GERTSEN, Aleksandr Ivanovich [Alexander HERZEN]

Byloe i dumy: Pervoe polnoe izdanie [My Past and Thoughts: First Complete Edition]

Slovo, Berlin, 1921. £750

First complete edition of Herzen's main work, containing "the broadest, most truthful and most penetrating overview of the Russian social and cultural history of the first half of the nineteenth century". A scarce edition, in five small volumes.

Image for TSVETAEVA, M. Poet i vremia. First edition. Prague, 1932. #2

The great poetess' comments on poetry

TSVETAEVA, Marina Ivanovna

Poet i vremia [The Poet and Time]

Volia Rossii, Prague, 1932. £650

Scarce first publication of Tsvetaeva's important essay on poetry.

Image for J. BRODSKY. Two volumes of poetry. First editions, inscribed. Ann Arbor, 1977. #2

Nobel-Prize winning poetry pre- and post-emigration - "avec best pozhelaniiami"

BRODSKII, Iosif [also Joseph BRODSKY]

Konets prekrasnoi epokhi. Stikhotvoreniia 1964-1971 [with] Chast rechi. Stikhotvoreniia 1972-1976 [The End of a Beautiful Era. Poems 1964-1971 [with] Part of Speech. Poems 1972-1976].

Ardis, Ann Arbor, 1977. £7,750

Great gathering of both volumes, in first editions, both inscribed to Vandelos-Legkaia, a figure of the Russian community in the USA.

Image for S. DOVLATOV. Marsh odinikikh. First edition, inscribed. Holyoke, 1983. #2

A chronicle of the early 1980s in the US Russian community

DOVLATOV, Sergei

Marsh odinokikh [The March of the Lonely]

Holyoke, New England Publishing Co, 1983. £2,250

First edition thus, inscribed to a fellow journalist and author.

Image for S. DOVLATOV. Nashi [Ours]. First edition, inscribed. Ann Arbor, 1983. #2

"One only wants to be like Chekhov"

DOVLATOV, Sergei

Nashi [Ours]

Ardis, Ann Arbor, 1983. £2,500

First edition of this collection of short stories by the famous Russian author. An appealing example, inscribed by Dovlatov to a figure of the US Russian emigration.

Image for S. DOVLATOV. Zona. First edition, inscribed. Ann Arbor, 1982. #2

His "most important book" - inscribed

DOVLATOV, Sergei

Zona: zapiski nadziratelia [The Zone: A Prison Camp Guard's Story]

Ermitazh, Ann Arbor, 1982. £3,000

First edition Dovlatov's famous work, inscribed to a figure of the Russian emigration in the US.

Image for PUSHKIN & ALEXEIEFF. Récits de Ivan Bielkine. First edition thus, Maestricht & Bruxelles, 1929/1930. #2

With some of the best plates of Alexeieff

ALEXEIEFF, Alexandre et Alexandre POUCHKINE [PUSHKIN]

Les Récits de Feu Ivan Pétrovitch Bielkine

Boosten et Stols, Maestricht, pour Stols, Maestricht et Bruxelles, 1930 [mais Septembre 1929]. £600

Pleasant example, fresh internally, of this famous production of Alexeieff illustrating Pushkin. First edition with these illustrations. One of the "few copies" not for sale.

Image for A. AKHMATOVA. 50 Stikhotvorenii [50 Poems]. Paris, 1963. In fine condition. #2

Unauthorised edition

AKHMATOVA, Anna

50 stikhotvorenii [50 poems]

Paris, YMCA-Press, 1963. £650

Fine copy, in its original printed wrappers, of this large-format edition of some of the poems of Russia's great poetess. Printed with a mimeograph machine.

Image for J. BRODSKY. Verses and Poems, first edition in the original Russia. USA, 1965. #2

A Nobel Prize's first book

BRODSKII, Iosif [also Joseph BRODSKY]

Stikhotvoreniia i poemy [Verses and Poems]

Inter-Language Literary Associates, Washington, D.C.-New York, 1965. £750

First edition of an important start: the future nobel prize winner's first collection of poems that had to be published abroad after he was sentenced to five years of hard labor for "social parasitism" in 1964.

Image for P. BORANETSKII. Third Russia. First edition of magazine, in Russian, complete set. Paris, 1932-39 #2

Innovative philosophy and current affairs in the 1930s

BORANETSKII, Petr, Nikolai KLEPININ and others

Tretia Rossiia. La Troisième Russie

Parizh, Boranetskii, 1932-39. £1,450

Complete set of this scarce magazine of Russian émigrés in Paris, dealing or, rather, reflecting on some important international political issues of the 1930s, and trying to elaborate a new philosophy, rejecting at the same time the Communists, Democrats, Conservatives and Christians. An excellent copy in publisher's wrappers.

Login