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[FROM VKHUTEMAS TO CHILDREN] Chto iz chego [i.e. What Comes from What]

Smirnov, N., Chichagova, G., Chichagova O.

Item #2726

Moscow: ZiF, [1927]. 13 pp. 30x23 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Spine restored, back cover repaired with paper fragment, some pale stains, otherwise very good.

The book design was created by sisters Galina Chichagova and Olga Chichagova.

Students of Alexander Rodchenko at VKhUTEMAS and members of the First Working Group of Constructivists, the Chichagovy sisters promoted a utilitarian, strictly functional aesthetic. This principle is fully evident in their collaborative book series with author Nikolai Smirnov. Their work is entirely devoid of fairy-tale whimsy, sentimental tone, or anthropomorphism, embodying the constructivist ideal of clarity and purpose. The molding of new Soviet generations was a top state priority, but prerevolutionary literature was deemed unfit for the task. Industrial books, explaining machinery, vehicles, and technology to children, became a hallmark of 1920s-30s publishing. More than just educational tools, they reflected the era's awe and ideological faith in industrial progress.

Nikolai Smirnov (1890–1933) was a talented writer and playwright. Since 1911, he wrote plays, starting with sketches for the False Mirror Theater. Following the October Revolution, Smirnov directed the Theatre of Revolutionary Satire in Kaluga, producing his own plays marked by farce and fantasy. In 1924 he switched to writing prose for children and adolescents. In particular, he explained economic and industrial topics. Among his works are “Children and the Newspaper” (1924), “Where Dishes Come From” (1924), and “Yegor the Electrician” (1928). Nikolai Smirnov achieved greatest fame with the 1930 novella “Jack Vosmerkin, an American”, about a Russian boy raised in the USA who must adapt to Soviet life upon his return. One of his novels, “Diary of a Spy” (1929) depicted Soviet counterintelligence battling English spies and, ironically, this led to his brief arrest due to the author's suspiciously accurate knowledge of espionage work.

In this work, two children boast about the new items their families bought for them at a large department store before a school year. During shopping children quiz the salespeople on what their clothes are made from and now they recount it to each other, competing to see whose outfit contains materials from the farthest away. The items include: a shirt made from flax grown outside the city, trousers from sheep's wool from Ukraine, a hat from squirrel fur from the forest, a silk scarf from the Caucasus, a cotton shirt from Uzbekistan, a schoolbag from seal skin from the Arctic Ocean, galoshes from South American rubber, mittens from desert camel wool, and buttons from coconut palms and shells from countries in the Southern Hemisphere. Few families could afford purchases in such department stores, mainly they were party officials. In this context, books like this one served a purpose akin to adventure stories, offering a glimpse of a world of abundance most readers could only imagine.

Extremely rare in the trade. Worldcat shows copies located in LoC and Stanford, Pennsylvania, Princeton Universities.

Price: $9,500.00