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[GERMANOPHOBIA DURING WWI] V strane chudes. Pravda o Probaltiyskikh Nemtsakh. [i.e. In Wonderland: The truth about the Baltic Germans]

Rennikov, A. [Selitrennikov, Andrey Mitrofanovich]

Item #2223

Petrograd: M.A. Suvorin, 1915. VI, 347 pp.: ill.; 20x13 cm. Original publisher’s cardboards, rubbed. Spine was supplied a few decades later. The tear of the last page, otherwise good internally. Stamps of a Russian bookshop in San Francisco.

Second edition came out the same year as the first one, after the commercial success of the book.
Andrei Rennikov (real name Andrei Mitrofanovich Selitrennikov( 1882-1957) was a Russian writer, journalist and playwright, editor, teacher, and a prominent representative of the first wave of Russian emigration.
Published during the First World War, in the wake of Germanophobia that swept the Russian Empire, the book is thoroughly permeated with hostility towards the German nation. Traveling around the Baltic region at the beginning of the 20th century, Selitrennikov consciously recorded all the nuances of German life on this land and “the successful work of the Germans in the Germanization of Latvians and Estonians.” The author is indignant that even Latvian surnames began to be translated into German: “One Latvian woman, who previously bore the surname Vaver, now has the surname Eichhorn; Latvian Asser is named Bars in his passport; the surname Kalnin was transformed into Berg <...> And the local Old Believer Gusev, when they once asked his name, answered without hesitation - Johann.” Somewhat later, Selitrennikov released another German-hating, pamphlet - “Rhine Gold. About the Germans in Russia." Written easily and naturally, both books were instantly sold out.
Selitrennikov did not accept the February Revolution and the October Revolution and went to Rostov-on-Don, occupied by the Volunteer Army, where, collaborating with OSVAG, he worked as editor of the newspaper “Zarya Rossii”.
In March 1920, he left Novorossiysk for Varna, from where he left for Yugoslavia. In Belgrade, together with M. A. Suvorin (son of A. S. Suvorin), he published the newspaper “New Time” (1921-1926). At the same time, Rennikov was engaged in theater: a play about the life of emigrants “There Far Away” (1922) was published in Belgrade; a play “Gallipoli” about White Army volunteers and a comedy “Refugees of All Countries” (1925) were published in Sofia. In 1925-1926 the novels “Living Souls”, “Dictator of the World”, “Far Far Away” were published.
In 1926, Selitrennikov attempted to move “New Time” to Paris, but was unsuccessful, after which he moved to the city alone. In Paris, he became an employee of the newspaper "Vozrozhdenie", which regularly published stories, articles and essays about the life of Russian emigrants, and excerpts from new works under the heading "Little feuilleton". A collection of stories “Uninvited Varangians” (1929) (about the resourcefulness of Russian emigrants in a foreign land) and a detective novel “Green Devils” were published in Paris.
In 1940, Selitrennikov moved from German-occupied Paris to the south of France, continuing to write articles for Renaissance, with whose editors he continued to collaborate after the war.

Price: $650.00