Bookvica

10 let Uzbekistana [i.e. Ten Years of Uzbekistan] / editorial board: M. Tursunkhodzhaev, A. Antonov, L. Kessel

Moscow; Leningrad: OGIZ; IZOGIZ, 1934. Item #1515

238 pp+2 separate leaves.: ill (see below for specification). 29x24 cm. One of 2200 copies. Original cloth binding with gilt lettering on the spine and the front cover. Cloth box with lid. Book: near fine condition. Case is in good condition, with few bumps and stains.
First edition. First printing.

The design of the book by Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova. Photography by Eleazar Langman, Abram Shterenberg, Soyuzphoto and IZOGIZ photo-laboratory.
This ambitious photomontage album was prepared to celebrate the first decade of Uzbekistan’s membership of the USSR, with special emphasis on agricultural, cultural, artistic and economic development under Stalin’s Five Year Plan. It is filled with multi-colored photogravures, foldouts, die cuts, acetate overlays, maps and diagrams.
The edition was banned within two years of being printed because 16 Uzbeki party officials were convicted as “enemies of the state”. The book was taken out of circulation and Rodchenko’s copy was made famous by David King’s book, The Commissar Vanishes (1997), in which Rodchenko blotted out the faces of those convicted.
The book itself is a renowned masterpiece of Soviet book-design. Involving the family duo of Rodchenko and Stepanova at the peak of their careers, one of the best photographers of the country and the best-equipped publisher and printshop. The book is, without doubt, one of the major achievements of Soviet book design.
It may seem like an odd decision to include arguably the most famous Soviet photobook in a catalogue of unknown photomontage, but we include it in order to demonstrate the breadth of the topic and to underline the effort it took to prepare an edition like this.
Also as our copy being the first edition of the first printing (the book was put into production 26/VIII 1934 and finished 21/X 1934) with the most number of pages and inserts described in the copies we managed to put together the detailed description of what constitutes the complete copy in our opinion.
The indication of this printing is inner IZOGIZ publisher’s number which is 7159 and the printrun stated is 2200 copies.
The second printing of the same edition with “1934” on the title page but it was put into production in February 1935 and finished in August the same year. That printing’s identified by IZOGIZ publisher’s number 7596.
The second edition states “1935” on the title page and also has the words “Second edition” there as well.
To enable further bibliographical research, it is crucial to give specific details of the polygraphic content of the book:
First endpaper in red with the photomontage images of cotton on both sides.
238 unnumbered pages, including 8 foldouts in different shapes (the page is larger than the block of the book and can open up horizontally or vertically); 6 pages are printed on silver, including the two-page map of the USSR. The second map in the book, a map of Uzbekistan, is printed on standard paper. There are 10 plexi tracing paper leaves throughout the album, of which only one has no text or illustration. Of those leaves (which are not included in the 238 as per our pagination) one has a photomontage image of a cotton-picker printed on it, two are red and two are yellow, the rest are achromatic.
The first 32 pages of the chapter, “The land and its people”, are printed on thicker paper than the rest of the book.
Our copy includes two leaves, printed and inserted separately. One leaf consists of an explanatory note by the head of the editorial board, Tursunkhodzhaev, advertising the printing of the album in the Uzbeki language that would follow. The other leaf is end-matter listings all the workers of “1ya obraztsovaya tipografiya” [i.e. the 1st exemplary printing workshop] who were involved in production of the album: it includes 118 printers, who “actively participated in the creation of the album”, suggesting that not everyone involved was named.
Second endpaper in grey and white features a close-up photo of astrakhan.

Karasik, M. Heiting, M. The Soviet Photobook 1920–1941. P. 272.

Status: On Hold