Bookvica

[VEGETABLE PHOTO-BOOK] Ovoshchevodstvo v SSSR [Vegetable Growing in the USSR] / edited by I. Benediktov, A. Gritsenko, and P. Pospelov

Item #2818

Moscow: Publishing House of the USSR People's Commissariat of Agriculture, 1940. 142, [2] pp., plus 48 plates. Large quarto (25.6 × 35 cm [10 ⅛ × 13 ¾ in.]). Original publisher's calico binding with white, blind, and relief embossing on the front cover. Illustrated endpapers. Contemporary ownership inscription in Georgian on the title page, dated 1949. Binding slightly bumped, with a small tear at the foot of the spine; internally exceptionally clean. Overall a good copy.

First edition. The publication was prepared under the editorship of Ivan Benediktov (1902–1983), who would soon become one of the most influential agricultural administrators in the Soviet Union, serving as People's Commissar and later Minister of Agriculture.
Impressive large-format survey of Soviet vegetable production published on the eve of the Second World War by the People's Commissariat of Agriculture.

Combining statistical data, agricultural planning, documentary photography, maps, diagrams, and color plates, the volume was intended to demonstrate the achievements of Soviet agriculture following collectivization and the implementation of the Five- Year Plans. The publication documents vegetable cultivation across the diverse climatic regions of the Soviet Union, illustrating large collective and state farms, irrigation systems, mechanized cultivation, seed production, storage facilities, transportation networks, and scientific methods of agricultural management.

The artistic design was executed by V. A. Belyaev, N. F. Piletsky, S. I. Peich, and A. I. Malushin, representatives of the generation of Soviet graphic designers active in the production of illustrated state publications during the late Stalin period. Working within the tradition established by such celebrated publications as SSSR na stroike [USSR in Construction], these artists combined typography, photography, diagrams, and decorative elements into a coherent visual narrative intended to emphasize both the scientific and ideological aspects of Soviet agricultural development. Their work on the present volume exemplifies the high production standards characteristic of major state-sponsored illustrated publications on the eve of the war.

Worldcat shows the only copy at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Price: $1,500.00

Status: On Hold