Our Notes & References

An anti-Soviet pamphlet with a striking cover; rare: we could not trace any example in Russian libraries; WorlCat shows 5 holdings in the US (Yale, Princeton, NYPL, Urbana Ch. and Georgetown U. in Washington). Not in Savine.

The brochure was published by the National Fund for the Struggle for Russia, which was formed by a group of Russian journalists. A relatively unknown organisation, it also published a periodical called “Obzor russkoi pechati” (Review of the Russian Press) between 1953 and 1957.

The book focuses on the global threat posed by communism, and how communist parties abroad were used as agents by the Soviet Union. It draws comparisons between pre-Revolutionary Russia and the USSR, while also providing a brief history of Stalin’s rise to power and the repressive tactics he employed. Among the other things, the author highlights the case of Maxim Gorky, a renowned writer and socialist thinker who became a “victim of Stalin’s reign of terror”. The author believes that Gorky was killed on Stalin’s orders.

The pamphlet comes with two advertising leaflets loosely inserted, including one for the Russian Press Digest with a vibrant anti-Soviet, pro-Russian text.

Provenance

Avenir Nizoff (a pianist who lived in Edmonton, Canada, in the second half of the 20th century, and gathered a large, wide-ranging library of Russian works, especially covering art, history and literature, with a strong representation of émigré works).