Banned books - Ouvrages censurés

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 S. ALEKSIEVICH. U voiny ne zhenskoe litso [The Unwomanly Face of War]. First edition, first issue, inscribed. Minsk, 1985. #2

The Nobel Laureate's first book - inscribed

ALEKSIEVICH, Svetlana

U voiny ne zhenskoe litso [The Unwomanly Face of War]

Mastatskaia litaratura, Minsk, 1985. £6,250

First edition, first issue, an inscribed copy, of Aleksievich's important first book. She would go on and win the Nobel Prize of LIterature 30 years later, in 2015.

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 [P. QUESNEL]. Almanach du Diable. Manuscript copy. Ca. 1737 #2

Manuscript copy of a hellish, banned satire

ASMODEUS [pseud. for Abbé Pierre QUESNEL]

Almanach du Diable contenant de prédictions tres curieuses et absolument infaillibles pour l'année 1737

Aux Enfers, 1737. £5,000

A lovely object, the holograph copy of a blasphemous text written by a priest and suppressed in France upon publication in the late 1730s. The Devil's Almanac!

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 General GOLOVIN. Russian Military Efforts in the First World War. First expanded edition in Russia. Paris, 1939 #2

Fine example in lovely condition

GOLOVIN, N. N., General

Voennye usiliia Rossii v Mirovoi voine [Russian Military Efforts in the World War]

Tov. obedenennikh pisatelei, Parizh, 1939. £295

Comprehensive research on Russia's role in the First Wolrd War; an influential work, here in fine condition.

Image for TOLSTOY, L. Vlast Tmy [The Power of Darkness]. First edition, Moscow, 1887. #2

"For adults" as printed on the title page

TOLSTOY, Lev

Vlast Tmy [The Power of Darkness]

Sytin, Moskva, 1887. £1,100

First edition of Tolstoy's play, forbidden for the stage during some years. A very good example in contemporary binding.

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 BRODSKY. A Stop in the Desert. Poster signed by the author. First edition thus, Ardis, 1972. #2

Poetry on the wall - signed by the poet

BRODSKY, Iosif [Joseph BRODSKII] and Jamie FULLER (translator)

A Stop in a Desert

[Ardis, Ann Arbor, 1972]. £950

One of the earliest US publications by Brodsky and one of the first collaborations between him and Ardis, initiating a long-lasting and fruitful publishing history. Scarce poetical poster, with Brodsky's original signature.

Image for L. TOLSTOY. Khadzhi-Murat. First separate edition. Moscow, 1912. #2

Tolstoy's "most painful text and the most intimate"

TOLSTOY, Lev

Khadzhi-Murat [Hadji-Murad]

Riabushinskii for Posrednik, Moskva, 1912. £2,250

Likely the first separate edition of this important novella, telling the tragic story of a Caucasian leader in the midst of Russia's conquest. A very rare edition, with only one other copy located.

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 V. SIRIN [NABOKOV]. Invitation to a Beheading. First edition, original Russian. Paris, 1938. #2

Nabokov's political fiction

SIRIN, V. [pseud. for Vladimir NABOKOV]

Priglashenie na kazn [Invitation to a Beheading]

Dom Knigi, Parizh, 1938. £1,850

First ediion of Nabokov's last Russian novel printed in Paris, a work chosen by Radio Liberty to distribute clandestinely in USSR.

Image for A. GRIBOEDOV. Gore ot Uma [Woe from Wit]. St. Petersburg, 1854. Rare small-format edition. #2

Wit in your pocket - with wrappers

GRIBOEDOV, Aleksandr

Gore ot uma. Komediia v chetyrekh deistviiakh, v stikhakh [Woe from Wit. A Comedy in Four Acts in Verse]

Tip. Shtaba Voenno-Uchebn. Zaved., Skt Peterburg, 1854. £2,500

Rare small-format edition of this famous masterpiece of Russian theatre, a lovely copy with its original wrappers. No copy traced in WorldCat.

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 L. TOLSTOY. Kritika dogmaticheskogo bogosloviia [Critique of Dogmatic Theology]. First edition, rare. Geneva, 1891-96. #2

First copy on the market in 40 years

TOLSTOY, Lev

Kritika dogmaticheskago bogosloviia [Critique of Dogmatic Theology]

Obshchee delo for M. Elpidine, Geneve, 1891-6. £3,750

Rare first edition of Tolstoy's important critical religious text, published in Geneva as it was impossible to have it authorised in the Russian empire. No copy traced on the market in recent decades - this one a pleasant example.

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