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[CELEBRATING ADJARA, ABKHAZIA AND AZERBAIJAN] Nashi tropiki [i.e. Our Tropics]

Bruni, Lev

Item #2205

Moscow: OGIZ — Molodaya Gvardiya, 1931. 24 p.19.3×14.6 cm.

In the publisher's illustrated wrappers. Near fine condition. First and only edition. Lithographed throughout.

Lev Aleksandrovich Bruni (1894-1948) — Soviet avant-garde artist, book illustrator and war correspondent; comes from a famous dynasty of architects and painters. At first he joined the "Mir Iskusstva" association; later, inspired and tutored by Tatlin, his art became more abstract, in the 1920s took part in exhibitions of the "Makovets" and "Chetyre Iskusstva" associations.
As an illustrator, he designed many books in the 1920s and 1930s, but this book is the only publication, to which he has written the text as well – his only ‘livre d’artiste’.

The book itself is a celebration of Soviet subtropics – an idea, that became popular in early Stalin period, that Abkhazia and Adjara is not different climatically, than Ceylon or China – the idea was formulated in Beria’s famous slogan “Dadim limony, mandariny apel'siny na stol trudyashchegosya Sovetskoy strany” [i.e. We will Place Lemons, Tangerines and Oranges on the Tables of the Soviet Citizens] and backed by scientists and climate experts, led by Nikolay Vavilov (1887-1943).

The project “Soviet Subtropics” was conceived in 1930: “In the land of Transcaucasia, on the subtropical fringe of the Union, on the border of the East, gigantic creative work is already in full swing aimed at producing the wonderful multicolored vegetable carpet of the Soviet Florida”. From 1934, a struggle for the development of subtropical agriculture became the main concern of the Komsomol members of the region. The process of the subtropical “flourishment” was supervised by the head of the region, Nestor Lakoba (1893-1936) and the chairman of the All-Union Committee on the Subtropics, Andrei Lezhava (1870-1937), who fell victim to the Soviet repressions in 1937.

Each leaf in a book is dedicated to different types of fruits or activities that are associated with the region – picking up persimmon, New Zealand linen, tea, peaches, mandarins, oranges, bamboo etc.
The book ends with a panorama of the celebration parade, dedicated to the 1st of May in Batumi.

Worldcat shows 6 copies in US Institutions: Wolfsonian, UCLA, University of Central Missouri, Princeton, University of Chicago.

Price: $1,750.00