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[LATE STALIN PERIOD IN GEORGIA, 564 ISSUES] Zarya Vostoka [The Dawn of the East]

Item #2830

Tiflis: Typography of Zarya Vostoka, 1949–1953. 564 newspaper issues, bound in six contemporary folio volumes.
The set includes:
– March–June 1949, Nos. 127–192 (66 issues);
– July–September 1949, Nos. 62–126 (65 issues);
– April–June 1950, Nos. 68–139 (72 issues);
– July–August 1951, Nos. 153–231 (79 issues);
– January–March 1952, Nos. 1–77 (77 issues);
– October–December 1953, Nos. 232–308 (77 issues).
Folio. Six contemporary cardboard bindings. Paper labels on the front covers of the binding, indicating which issues are included. Pale occasional water stains in 1951 volume. With the stamps of Georgian institute in 1949 and 1952 volumes, that was later de-assembled. The set comes with the export license from the Georgian Ministry of Culture. Minor wear from use, blocks are shaky, fragments of paper lost from the cardboard. Overall well preserved.

Zarya Vostoka was the principal Russian-language newspaper of Soviet Georgia and one of the most influential periodicals published in the Transcaucasian republics. As the official organ of the Georgian Communist Party and republican authorities, it enjoyed one of the largest circulations in the region (70000 copies for the years present) and served as the primary vehicle through which Soviet political, economic, and cultural policies were communicated to the Russian-speaking population of Georgia.

Beyond its obvious importance as a source for Soviet political history, the newspaper provides a remarkably detailed record of everyday life in the Georgian SSR during the years immediately following the Second World War and the final years of Stalin's rule. Lavrentiy Beria is mentioned often as his influence in the political scene in these years were on the rise in 1949- 1952. The 1953 volume contains the detailed account of Beria’s trial and his eventual death sentence (the article ‘The sentence in court - the sentence by the people’ came out on 25th of December, 1953, condemning Beria 2 days after he was executed in Moscow).
The industrial building across the Soviet Union shown both in detailed reports from the construction of Moscow skyscrapers, as well as the similar smaller structures in Tbilisi (like the ensemble of Stalinist Empire style buildings around Marjanishvili square, finished in 1949).

Another recurring theme throughout the 1949 issues is the newspaper's coverage of the rapidly emerging Cold War. International news is presented almost exclusively through the lens of Soviet ideological confrontation with the West, with regular reports denouncing "Anglo- American imperialists," NATO military preparations, economic policies of the United States and Britain, and alleged Western interference in other countries. Particularly striking are the political caricatures by Ivan Gurro, one of the newspaper's principal cartoonists, famous for his anti-Nazi caricatures of 1941-1945, he portrayed British and American leaders as warmongers, colonial exploiters, and enemies of peace - the standard theme among Soviet cartoonists of 1940s, this particular blent created in Tbilisi.

Among the most revealing aspects of this coverage are the regular dispatches from Korea, which appear with remarkable frequency even before the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. The newspaper closely followed political developments in the divided peninsula, treating Korea as one of the principal frontiers of the global struggle between socialism and imperialism. Reports consistently emphasized popular support for the northern regime, criticized American influence in the South, and framed events on the peninsula as evidence of broader Western attempts to contain socialist movements in Asia.

Apart from the caricatures, the newspaper used photomontage and retouched photographs, as well as the reproductions of some theatre and movie posters. One of the photomontage photograph’s caption read Artists of the Shcherbakov Moscow Silk-Weaving and Dyeing-Finishing Combine have prepared up to 500 new original textile designs and color patterns. Approximately 200 of these new designs and colorways have already been introduced into production. In the photograph: in the printing department, colorist artist B. A. Derzhavin and artist E. I. Rastegaeva examine fabrics featuring the new designs (issue number 128, 1949).

One interesting article in 1949 volume in No. 93 (14 May 1949) is “Radio to the Collective-Farm Village” by Leo Esakia (1890-1969), at the time deputy chairman of the Committee for Radio Broadcasting under the Council of Ministers of the Georgian SSR. Easkia is better known as one of the pivotal Georgian modernists of 1920s, a movie director and the author of the book, that linked Pirosmani to Sezanne and Picasso in 1928.

The article documents the Soviet campaign to extend wired radio networks into rural Georgia during the late-Stalin period. Esakia presents radio not merely as a technological improvement but as an instrument of political education and cultural transformation. He reports on the expansion of radio lines to collective farms, the installation of loudspeakers in villages, and the involvement of local authorities, industrial enterprises, and communication specialists in bringing broadcasting to remote districts.

The advertisements were usually placed on the last page of every issue and reflected the cultural, social and commercial life of Georgia. Particularly notable is the large advertisements for Yuvelirtorg, the state jewelry retailer, offering gold and silver watches, jewelry, tableware, and decorative objects through its Tbilisi stores; grassroots dramatic performances in research institutes or automobile workshops, bills for the Russian and Armenian theaters, as well as celebrated Kurdish ashug Kurchi.

Taken together, the present run offers an unusually rich overview of post-war Soviet Georgia between 1949 and 1953, documenting the republic during a period of reconstruction, late-Stalinist economic development, and the transition that followed Stalin's death in March 1953. As a source for the social history of the Caucasus, the collection preserves a wealth of information rarely captured in monographic publications, reflecting both official policy and the everyday concerns of the population as recorded in the republic's most important newspaper.

Not found in Worldcat.

Price: $4,500.00