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[MOTHERHOOD AND INFANTRY IN THE USSR] Nuzhny li kolkhoznitse letnie iasli [i.e. If a Female Farmer Needs Summer Nurseries]

Protoklitov, S.

Moscow; Leningrad: Gos. meditsinskoe izdatel’stvo, 1931. Item #1814

16 pp. 17x12,5 cm. In original photomontage wrappers. Pale water stains on covers, rusty spot around staple, some small bookworm holes throughout copy, otherwise very good.

Fifth edition. Rare and remarkable propaganda book of the collectivization period.
The cover design features a peasant woman driving a tractor while children are spending time in a safe place. The letterpress design is also interesting and is built with a dynamic diagonal axis crossing the cover.
This book was published in a series “Healthy Daily Life in Collective Farms”. The first edition of the work was released in 1926, since then it was reprinted in various languages of the Soviet Union, including Ingush and Southern Altai. Promotion of the topic was on high level, so the fifth edition indicates printrun of 100 thousand copies.
Nurseries were introduced in the early Soviet Union as an essential institution for a significant part of the population that was supposed to be joined to industrial and agricultural works. Women became full-time employees who could dedicate themselves to work. For employees of one enterprise, nurseries frequently emerged at the same building if there was a premise for that. For rural areas, nurseries were organized within collective farms for the summer season.​​ Thus, the state obliged a peasant family to join a kolkhoz if they wanted to use the services of a nursery.
This small book tells about proper maintenance of such places and their advantages over alternatives: entrusting babies and toddlers of several families to one female neighbor; field work with babies; entrusting babies to older children of 5-10 years. The author elaborates on the basic needs of nurseries and how to organize them in a new place.

The only copy is located in University of California, Los Angeles.

Price: $750.00