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[SOVIET AGRICULTURE] VISKHOM VII S’ezdu Sovetov [i.e. From the All-Union Research Institute of Agricultural Engineering to the VIIth Congress of Soviets]

Item #1987

Moscow: ONTI NKTP SSSR: Glavnaia redaktsiia literatury po mashinostroeniiu i metalloobrabotke, 1935. 209, [3] pp.: ill., 3 portraits. 21,5x25 cm. In original full cloth and original illustrated dust jacket; modern case reproducing design of dust jacket.

First and only edition. One of 3000 copies. Very rare. Design was created by G. Krastoshevskii. This little-known artist collaborated with N. Sedelnikov working on the photobook ‘15 Years of the Soviet Construction’ (1932) and with I. Rerberg designing ‘Soviet Subtropics’ (1940).

This particular photo book is dedicated to the first years of the All-Union Research Institute of Agricultural Engineering. Employees of the institute were entrusted with design of original Soviet constructions of farm machinery for the early five-year plans and expanded shock-working movement. Since its foundation, it was headed by Vasily Goriachkin (1868-1935). He graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University and from Moscow Technical School. In both institutions, Goriachkin studied under the father of Russian aerodynamics Nikolai Zhukovsky. The main works by V. Goryachkin relate to agricultural mechanics. He began to publish them before the Revolution. His “Theory of Plow” came out in 1927 and soon became classics. Thanks to Goriachkin, farm machines and tools became the subject of deep and versatile scientific study, the mechanical essence of many processes and machines was revealed and a scientific theory was created for their design and rational construction. In 1913, Goriachkin initiated construction of one of the earliest machine testing stations in Russia. In 1928, on the basis of a machine testing station, VISKHOM was created. Later its branches were formed in Kharkiv, Rostov-on-Don, Omsk and Tashkent.
The edition opens with a picture of agricultural work in process: a tractor driving six tools at one time. The title page is printed on verso of the second leaf: a reverse text “To VII-th Congress of Soviets” is built on the printer's borders. Above it, red lines explain the abbreviation of VISKHOM and publishing details. Meanwhile its recto features a reproduction of a painting where field work is going on.

The book includes articles written by S. Ravva (contemporary head of the VISKHOM), V. Gan, V. Goriachkin (honored consultant of the institute), heads of different laboratories: aerodynamic, grain cleaning and grain harvesting, designing, of tillage implements, of materials research, of cutting devices, of wheels, etc. After them, departments of the Kharkiv branch are also overviewed. A separate section is dedicated to printed materials issued by institute employees and their reference library. At the end, the book lists 24 works published in 1933-1934 and 21 projects approved.

The edition presents new farm machinery created at VISKHOM and portraits of designers. Since 1933 the institute produced new variations of tractors, plows, cultivators, seed drills, combine harvesters, balers, threshers, mowers, also cotton, flax, hemp, potato and sugar beet harvesters, a beet-tops cutter, potato sorting and drying machines, etc. A special list contains all VISKHOM machinery launched in mass production in 1935. Photographs and descriptions are given for restored pre-revolutionary and newly built factories producing agricultural machinery by 1935: “Sickle and Hammer” (Kharkiv), “Kommunar” (Zaporizhzhia), “Sibselmash” (Omsk), “Rosselmash” (Rostov-on-Don), “Tashselmash” (Tashkent), “Sarkombine” (Saratov), etc. Pictures also feature the main VISKHOM building, abundance of equipment in various laboratories, machinery during tests. In 1967, VISKHOM was named after Goriachkin. Being gradually destroyed after the dissolution of the USSR, the institute ceased to exist in 2015.

Worldcat doesn’t track this edition.

Price: $5,500.00