Our Notes & References

Very rare Southern production of the Civil war era, published in Odessa in a turbulent year, when the city changed hands three times: controlled by the Entente forces in the beginning of the year, Odessa was captured by ataman Grigoriev in March and subsequently by general Denikin in August.

We couldn’t find much information about the publisher, The Bessarabian Book Publishing House. Judging by the editions it produced, it was located in Kishinev in 1916-1918 before relocating to Odessa, where it was active in 1919–1920.

The first story is a traditional tale of how a boy’s lost mitten becomes a refuge from the cold for an increasing number of animals. In the second, although the old man and the old woman and the granddaughter and the dog and the cat all together could not pull out an enormous turnip, when the mouse added his muscle to the team, the turnip popped out of the ground. (cf. University of Minnesota Catalogue). The artist is unfortunately not credited and remained anonymous.

Only two examples located: in the University of Minnesota and the University of North Carolina (Savine collection). Apparently none in both major Russian libraries, RGB in Moscow and RNB in St. Petersburg.