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[EL LISSITZKY AND SOPHIE LISSITZKY-KÜPPERS] Sovetskie subtropiki [i.e. Soviet Subtropics]

Item #2586

Moscow: Zhurnal’no-gazetnoe ob’edinenie, 1934. 220 pp.: ill. 30 × 23 cm. In original illustrated cardboards and original illustrated wrapper under it, modern slipcase. No dust jacket. Tears of pages, pale water stains, spots, otherwise good copy. Provenance: from the private library of Alberto Sandretti, Russian art collector and Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation in Venice, his stamp on front wrapper.

The book was published as a special issue of the magazine “Ogonek” for 1934. Along with other issues, it contains no title page but the front wrapper under the binding.
The Soviet Subtropics project was conceived by the leadership of the Soviet Union in the 1930s. It was no less grandiose and ambitious than the construction of the Moscow Metro, hydroelectric stations, canals through waterless lands and giant metallurgical works. In Soviet subtropics, they intended to raise “the wonderful multicolored vegetable carpet of Soviet Florida”. Among the great plans were plantations of cotton and the raw material for Soviet rubber, compared to Egypt and South America.

Subtropical plants were supposed to be cultivated in Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Despite this, the book mostly promotes the happy life of Transcaucasia – the land
that gave birth to the leader Joseph Stalin, a region of sunshine, fruits, health resorts and hospitable natives. Among the Ogonek special issues released in 1932–1935, the Soviet Subtropics stands out for its large format, design and the quality of printing. “Soviet Subtropics” was Lissitzky’s second parade book, published after “The USSR Is Building Socialism” (1933). Well acquainted with works by European artists, he added the aesthetics of Western photo albums. He filled the layout with photomontages, using pictures of plants, fruits, food, etc. In 1933, a car race was organized through the Karakum desert, in which Soviet tires made of tausaghyz were used. The text about this topic is published next to a photomontage devoted to the plant (tau-saghyz) and the product (tire). Another photomontage with a source of latex accompanies the text “Rubber Blossoms”. In this image, a bush of krim-saghyz grows from the back of a boy with his hands in the grass.

The edition opens with a photomontage including a portrait of Stalin with a pipe in front of a view of the sea coast. The final tinted photograph features two youngsters of both genders sunbathing on the seashore with a capture “Life is good in our country”. Its black-and-white original is known under another title “Youth”. This picture, which became classics of Soviet photography, was taken by Ivan Shagin in 1933.

This book became one of the first colored photobooks in the USSR – color photography wasn’t used, but some images were tinted before publishing. Pictures feature fruits and products obtained from them, farmers, sellers, workers of sorting centers and food factories, adults in kitchens and canteens, children in kindergarten, views of plantations and resorts, etc. In all, photographs were provided by well-known masters: A. Shaikhet, A. Shaanian, S. Fridliand, E. Mikulina, M. Penson, I. Shagin, V. Shakhovskoi, G. Zelmanovich and Soyuzfoto. Some of these photographers lived permanently in non-Russian republics: Max Penson was the chief photographer of Uzbekistan, Georgy Zelmanovich was born in Tashkent, Vladimir Shakhovskoi produced various series of pictures of Tajikistan.

Meanwhile, Arkady Shaikhet and Semion Fridliand (cousin of Mikhail Koltsov) worked regularly for “Ogonek” since 1925. Maps were created by constructivist artist Zoya Deineka. Among the authors: party leaders Lavrenty Beria, Nestor Lakoba, Andrei Lezhava, scientists Nikolai Vavilov and Boris Keller, poets Titian Tabidze and Simon Chikovani, writers Boris Pilnyak and Yefim Zozulya. The issue was edited by the main Soviet journalist of that epoch, Mikhail Koltsov in collaboration with party official Andrey Lezhava. The latter was the head of the Main Directorate of Subtropical Crops of the USSR from 1933 to 1937 and also the editor of the magazine “Soviet Subtropics” (Sukhumi, 1929–1940). Both Koltsov and Lezhava became victims of the Stalinist Purge in the late 1930s. The book contains the portrait of Lavrenty Beria, then the first secretary of the Transcaucasian territorial committee of the party, the leader of Georgian SSR and later the culprit of numerous murders. His text is devoted to the cultivation of citrus fruits in Georgia: “We give lemons, tangerines, oranges to the table of the working people of the Soviet country”. It is followed by a folding scheme of ‘the prospective zoning of subtropical cultures on the Black Sea coast’: it indicates farms harvesting tea, tobacco, citrus fruits, white ramie, grapes, tung, Japanese persimmon and geranium, as well as tea factories.
The essay “Let’s Create Soviet Florida” was written by Andrey Lezhava. In particular, it reads: “Our socialist farms have to catch up and surpass California and other highly cultured subtropical countries.” Nestor Lakoba’s portrait is published without an article, but with a quote where he, as the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the SSR of Abkhazia, sets three tasks for Abkhazian Bolsheviks. Despite being close to Stalin, Lakoba became a victim of Beria in 1936.

An interesting section of the edition is constructed as an illustrated table of 14 plants placed two per each double page spread. The table gives its name and silhouette (as on the covers), photographs of the plant and a major product made of it, scheme of habitats of this plant, texts about climate and soil required, harvest data, application, areas under cultivation in the USSR. Among the plants listed are: tea, figs, olives, feijoa, bamboo, geranium, eucalyptus, tung tree, eucommia, cork oak. Another section “Subtropical People” introduces different contributors through Ye. Zozulya’s field notes: along with party officials there are academician N. Vavilov, physician P. Lebedinsky, “an enthusiastic ornithologist”, “an engineer at a cannery”, “a girl who is a plant protector”. In 1940, publications “Soviet Subtropics” and “The Subtropical Crops” came out with more traditional designs created by other artists.

Worldcat shows copies located in California, Columbia, John Hopkins, Minnesota, Princeton and Stanford Universities, also LoC, Getty Institute, Claremont Colleges, Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

Price: $4,500.00