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[TOLSTOY: SOVIET EDITION WITH EL LISSITZKY’S CONSTRUCTIVIST COVERS] Polnoye sobraniye khudozhestvennykh proizvedeniy [i.e. Complete Collection of Fiction]. 14 books [of 24 published]

Tolstoy, L.

Item #2855

Moscow; Leningrad: Gos. Izd-vo, 1928. 446, 438, 294, 304, 328, 356, 374, 146 pp. 23,7x15,6 cm. In original publisher’s photomontage wrappers by El Lissitzky. Wrappers worn, tears of the spine, rubbed edges, several volumes with damp stains, but otherwise good condition.

Scarce. First edition. Text in Russian. 14 books (8 volumes) of 24 (12 volumes) published. Edited by literature historians Ivan Glivenko (1868-1931) and Mstislav Tsyavlovsky (1883-1947). An identical Constructivist wrapper design is employed across all 14 books in the collection, as well as the remaining volumes not represented here, by El Lissitzky (1890–1941), the iconic Soviet avant-garde artist. The series constitutes one of only two collections of works for which Lissitzky devised a unified wrapper design; the other is Maxim Gorky’s Sobranie sochinenii (1928–1931).

One of the first Soviet collections of complete fiction works by Tolstoy, released for the centenary of his birth in 1928, when the Soviet state undertook an ambitious program to republish and reassess the writer’s complete literary legacy.

For the young Soviet republic, republishing Tolstoy was regarded as a matter of considerable cultural and ideological importance. Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich, the first head of the Administration of the Council of People’s Commissars, recalled that soon after the October Revolution Lenin instructed Anatoly Lunacharsky to publish the works of the Russian classics, above all Tolstoy. Lenin reportedly insisted that “Tolstoy must be restored in full,” including works that had been suppressed or cut by tsarist censorship.
As a result, the 1928 centenary saw the publication of three pioneering Soviet editions of Tolstoy’s complete collected works, each serving a different purpose. The present collection contains only his fictional works and was intended for mass circulation, issued as a supplement to the popular Soviet magazine Ogonyok. Originally published in 24 separate books (12 volumes), 14 of which (8 volumes) are present in this collection, the set includes Childhood, Boyhood and Youth; The Wood-Felling; The Marker’s Notes; The Raid; Sevastopol in December; Sevastopol in May; Sevastopol in August; Meeting in the Detachment with a Moscow Acquaintance; The Morning of a Landowner; The Snowstorm; Two Hussars; From the Notes of Prince D. Nekhlyudov; Lucerne; Albert; Three Deaths; Family Happiness; The Cossacks; Polikushka; Tikhon and Malanya; The Idyll; as well as War and Peace and Anna Karenina (the latter incomplete). The verso of each book features an editorial statement printed on the rear wrapper confirming that the collection includes writings which, because of tsarist censorship, had not appeared in previous collected editions, including Nikolai Palkin and The Young Tsar.

In contrast to the other two editions published during the centenary — both featuring stricter and more stoic designs (a 15-volume edition completed in 1930 that provided a broader collection of literary works, and the monumental 90-volume Complete Works begun in the same year and completed only in 1958) — this set is distinguished by an avant-garde wrapper design produced by El Lissitzky. Lissitzky’s photomontage cover, which later became a classic of Constructivist book design, features a striking portrait of Tolstoy standing outdoors with a walking stick and a wide-brimmed hat, set against clean, asymmetrical geometric blocks of bold sans-serif typography, publication details, and a prominent facsimile of Tolstoy’s own sweeping signature across the lower portion. A promotional prospectus for the edition, reportedly preserved by the poet Aleksei Kruchenykh, bore Lissitzky’s proud handwritten statement: “The most mass-produced cover — 2,000,000 impressions. El Lissitzky, 1928.”

While comparison with the 15- and 90-volume editions shows that the texts themselves do not exhibit significant deviations, the present edition is rendered especially important by its preface from Anatoly Lunacharsky (1875-1933), a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissar (minister) of Education. Although the State publishing house chose not to censor Tolstoy’s texts, the role of censorship was effectively performed by Lunacharsky’s article, which sought to establish an ideological framework for reading Tolstoy. Lunacharsky attempts to reconcile Tolstoy’s enormous literary authority with the ideological principles of the new state, carefully separating the writer’s monumental artistic talent from his religious and philosophical views, which he condemns as a "colossally harmful" and counter-revolutionary utopia. His discussion of Anna Karenina is especially interesting, as Anna’s tragedy is interpreted as the result of the hypocrisy of bourgeois-aristocratic society, while Konstantin Levin’s religious and philosophical search is dismissed as an expression of “class limitation.” Lunacharsky stresses Tolstoy’s exposure of a punitive social system and of a punitive God demanding sacrifice. Contrasting with Anna’s fate, he highlights the Soviet promise to women trapped between a cold bureaucratic husband and a hypocritical social milieu: “You have the right to happiness; break toward the light, toward freedom.”

Overall, a significant example of early Soviet publishing, bringing together Tolstoy’s fiction, Lunacharsky’s ideological reinterpretation of his legacy, and El Lissitzky’s celebrated Constructivist design.

No copies found in Worldcat.

Status: On Hold