Our Notes & References

Very rare Azerbaijani edition, in Cyrillic alphabet. With Soviet bibliophile provenance.

This book contains two children’s poems by the Futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930), published in Baku (Azerbaijan SSR) in the Azerbaijani language and in the Azerbaijani Cyrillic alphabet.

The Azerbaijani language underwent several major script reforms during the 20th century. Originally written in Arabic, it was changed to Latin in 1929 as part of the Soviet language reforms, and later to Cyrillic in 1939. From January 1, 1940, Cyrillic became the official script—this edition, signed for printing in March 1940, is therefore an early example of Azerbaijani Cyrillic use. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijani officially reverted to the Latin script, although Cyrillic remained in limited use until 2001.

According to the bookplate stamp, this copy was associated with Surovezhinskie chetvergi [“Surovezhin’s Thursdays”]—literary evenings held for many years in the Moscow apartment of one of the city’s oldest bibliophiles, Nikolai Surovezhin (1903–90), who headed the sales department at Moskniga bookshop.

Provenance

Bookplate stamp ‘Ex Libris Surovezhinskie chetvergi’ on verso of upper wrapper.