Bookvica

[THE VICES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA] Takova Amerika: Rasskazy [i.e. That’s America: Short Stories]

Item #2030

Moscow: izd-vo, 1949 (Tip. im. Timoshenko). 64 pp.: ill. 14.3x10.9 cm. In original publisher’s illustrated wrappers. Fine condition.

Scarce. First and only edition. Edited by V. Panov. Translated from English by Soviet writer and translator Yuri Smirnov (1914-1987). Front wrapper and 7 black-and-white illustrations throughout by Petr Pinkisevich (1925-2004), a Soviet and Russian graphic artist and illustrator. After graduating from the Leningrad Art School in 1943, he joined the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army during World War II. Pinkisevich served as a junior lieutenant in the 37th Mechanized Brigade and was wounded in the leg during the battles for Warsaw in 1945. After demobilization in 1946, he worked as an artist-designer at the M. B. Grekov Studio of Military Artists. From 1952, he also contributed as an illustrator to magazines Smena [i.e. Shift] and Ogonyok [i.e. Spark].
An interesting piece of post-WWII Soviet propaganda, featuring short stories about the vices of the American political regime. The collection contains six texts by the American authors James Light, William Griffin, Saul Green, Allan Max, Jack Country, and Peter Quince. Titled “That’s America,” the book opens with the short story “Christmas Furlough” (James Light) about a black WWII soldier’s inability to get a bus seat home during his brief furlough. The rest of the texts delve into themes of racism, workplace denunciation, the abuse of power, and the oppression of workers. Among the featured stories are: “You are in America, Timmy,” “If you are a Negro,” “The Dubious Views of Miss Margaret Farch,” “California Fruits,” “There are Thousands of them,” and “A Ghost.”
The edition came out in the “Library of the Magazine ‘Soviet Warrior’” series and was printed by the Voenizdat publishing house. Founded in Moscow in 1919, Voenizdat specialized in printing literature for the defense industry, including technical manuals and dictionaries. The publishing house also produced posters, pamphlets, fiction, and non-fiction literature, often with military themes.

No copies found in Worldcat.

Status: On Hold