Bookvica

[SOVIET PROPAGANDA FOR THE UNDERGROUND WAR]

Item #2442

A collection of nine wartime propaganda brochures
published by Molodaya gvardiya in 1942, intended for clandestine
distribution among the Russian population in Nazi-occupied
regions of the USSR.
Text in Russian.
Founded in 1922, Molodaya gvardiya was one of the most
influential Soviet publishing houses, known for its wide-ranging
output of fiction, popular science, and youth literature. During
WWII, it launched The Young Partisan’s Library—a series of compact
brochures created in an effort to boost the morale of partisans.
Often smuggled into Nazi-occupied territories, these publications
featured heroic tales, practical advice, anti-Nazi texts, and moraleboosting
songs by various Soviet authors and political activists.
The digital catalogue of the Russian State Library lists seventeen
brochures printed in the series The Young Partisan’s Library.

Our brochures were issued in July–August 1942, just as
Nazi Germany reached the height of its advance. By that time, vast
swaths of Soviet territory—including most of Ukraine, Belarus, the
Baltic republics, and parts of southern Russia—were under German
occupation. Cities such as Kyiv, Minsk, Kharkiv, and Rostov-on-Don
had fallen, and German forces were pushing toward the Volga and
the oil fields of the Caucasus. In this context, The Young Partisan’s
Library served not only as ideological ammunition but as a survival
guide and rallying cry for civilians and fighters behind enemy lines.
The collection features the following brochures:
1) Stalin, J. Prikaz Narodnogo Komissara Oborony 1 maya
1942 goda № 130 [i.e. Order of the People’s Commissar of Defense
of May 1, 1942 No. 130]. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 1942. 18 pp.
12,7x9,7 cm.
Worldcat shows 3 copies of the edition at Columbia
University, Staford University, and Freie Universität Berlin.
2) Mikhailov, I. Liza Chaikina. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya,
1942. 31 pp. 12,7x9,7 cm.
Worldcat shows 1 copy of the edition at Harvard University.
3) Pesni: [muzyka dlya bayana] [i.e. Songs: Music for
Accordion]. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 1942. 30 pp. 12,7x9,7 cm.
No copies found in Worldcat.
4) Lidov, P. Tanya. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 1942. 22 pp.
12,7x9,7 cm.
Worldcat shows copies of the edition at Harvard University,
University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Library of Congress, The
Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame, and Berkeley
Library.
5) Chekalina, N. Moy syn: [Rasskaz materi o syne partizane
A. Chekaline] [i.e. My Son: [A Mother’s Story about her Son, the
Partisan A. Chekalin]. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 1942. 19 pp.
12,7x9,7 cm.
No copies in Worldcat.
6) Kuzin, I. Iz zapisok partizana [i.e. From the Notes of a
Partisan]. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 1942. 39 pp. 12,7x9,7 cm.
No copies in Worldcat.
7) Gorbatov, B. O zhizni i smerti [i.e. About Life and Death].
Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 1942. 15 pp. 12,7x9,7 cm.
No copies in Worldcat.
8) Mishakova, O. Kto takiye nashi vragi - nemetskiye
fashisty [i.e. Who are our Enemies - German Fascists]. Moscow:
Molodaya gvardiya, 1942. 31 pp. 12,7x9,7 cm.
No copies in Worldcat.
9) Yaroslavskiy, E. Fashisty khotyat vosstanovit’ na
sovetskoy zemle krepostnoye parvo [i.e. The Fascists Want to
Restore Serfdom on Soviet Soil]. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya,
1942. 22 pp. 12,7x9,7 cm.
No copies in Worldcat.
All brochures in publisher’s protective cloth case that could
easily be put in the top of soldier’s boot.

Price: $2,500.00