Our Notes & References

First edition of a rare little guide to ‘England’, issued to inform Russian readers at the outbreak of the First World War as part of the series ‘Nashi druzia i vragi‘ [‘Our Friends and Enemies’]. Although intended for young readers, the guide is filled with military statistics such as the British Navy’s annual budget and staffing requirements — perhaps unsurprisingly the publisher, Obshchestvennaia Polza (‘Public Benefit’), was criticised for being too ‘dry and strictly scientific, written like textbooks’ — it closed down in 1917.

As advertised by the back cover, others in the series included France, Belgium, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Serbia. An intended publication on Japan was unfortunately never released.

This copy with a lovely printed art-nouveau library label pasted to the upper fly-leaf with recommendations how to handle the book and respect it.

Very rare with no other copy traced, including in the Russian State Library in Moscow.

Provenance

From the estate of Geoffrey Elliott (1939-2021), banker of Russian descent, author of books on 20th-c. history. Acquired from Simon Beattie. Geoffrey and his wife Fay were noted collectors, especially of Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh and other literary figures. Russia was also an important theme: Geoffrey’s grandparents were interned in a Siberian tsarist prison camp before the October Revolution, and he focused most of his published works on the Cold War.

The Elliotts donated a significant part of their collection to the library of Leeds University in 2002, but kept the Russia-related items, which we consequently acquired.