Bookvica

[APPROVED BY CENSORSHIP – SOVIET CHILDREN’S BOOK] Okhotnik na vzmor’ye [i.e. Hunter on the Seashore]

Bianki, V.

Item #2755

Moscow; Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoye izdatel’stvo, 1926. 22, [2] pp.: 6 black-and-white ill. 27×17,5 cm. In original publisher’s illustrated wrappers by Nikolay Tyrsa. Stamps of the Soviet “Arkhiv Gosudarstvennogo Izdatel’stva” [i.e. State Publishing House Archive] on the front wrapper, title page, pp. 17 and 23, ink stamp reading “Provereno 1959” [i.e. Verified 1959] on the inner side of the front wrapper, inventory numbers on the title-page. Light soiling of the front wrapper, but otherwise very good.

Scarce. First edition. 1 of 7,000 copies. Text in Russian. Front cover, designed by the famous Soviet artist Nikolay Tyrsa, shows a large, stylized silhouette of a bird, rendered in muted blue color. Our copy of the edition features a censorship stamp “Verified” from 1959 (apparently after the author’s death). This marking represents a significant moment in the late 1950s when the State Publishing House (GIZ) conducted a massive ideological audit” of 1920s literature. During this period, archival copies of books by persecuted Soviet authors were systematically reviewed to determine if they could be “re-authorized” for the public or if they remained too “non-proletarian” for post-Stalinist standards. This copy is a survivor of that bureaucratic re-evaluation, documenting the moment when the “Golden Age” of Soviet children’s illustration was finally cleared for a new generation.
A rare children’s story written by Vitaly Bianki (ca. 1894-1959), the seminal figure and founder of Soviet nature literature for children, issued by the State Publishing House less than a year after the author’s release from prison. The narrative follows a hunter leaving industrial Leningrad for the Gulf of Finland, where a routine trip turns into a struggle against shifting ice floes and coastal storms.
A graduate of the Natural Science Department of the Physical and Mathematical Faculty of Petrograd University, Bianki was a zoologist and prolific Soviet children’s author. He debuted in children’s literature in 1923 and became renowned for a “scientific-artistic” style that paired biological accuracy with thrilling narrative. Despite his literary success, his life was defined by persistent political persecution due to his youthful affiliation with the Socialist Revolutionary Party and his “non-proletarian” background. Following the 1917 Revolution, he was arrested multiple times and faced repeated cycles of imprisonment and exile, including a significant sentence to Uralsk in the mid-1920s. Beyond his individual stories, he is most famous for creating the “Forest Newspaper” [i.e. Lesnaya Gazeta], a revolutionary work that transformed seasonal biological changes into captivating “news” reports for children. Over the course of his career, he was incredibly prolific, issuing more than three hundred short stories, fairy tales, and articles.
The book features six black-and-white illustrations by a prominent Soviet artist and a key figure in the Leningrad school of book illustration Nikolay Tyrsa (1887-1942). A student of the Imperial Academy of Arts, he became especially known for his refined graphic style, delicate use of line and color, and major contributions to Soviet book illustration and lithography. During the 1920s and 1930s, Tyrsa worked extensively on children’s books, magazine illustrations, and theatrical design, helping shape the visual language of early Soviet publishing. He collaborated with leading publishers and artists of the period and taught at several art institutions in Leningrad, influencing a generation of Soviet graphic artists. Tyrsa remained in besieged Leningrad during the early months of World War II and died during the evacuation in 1942.
Overall, one of the earliest short stories written by a popular Soviet children’s author shortly after his return from exile.

Worldcat shows copies of the edition at the New York Public Library and Virginia Tech.