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[LAUNCH OF AN EARLY JUVENILE SAMIZDAT]

Item #562

1. Nasha mysl’: Izdanie uchashchikhsia 17 sovetskoi trudovoi shkoly II stupeni Sok. Raion [i.e. Our Thought : Edition of the Students of the 17th Soviet Labor School of the II Stage of Sok. District]. [1920]. 8 handwritten leaves with mounted illustrations. 38x23 cm. In original oversized wrappers with mounted illustration. Tears of the edges, soiling, otherwise very good.
2. Iunaia mysl’ : Izdanie uchashchikhsia 17 sovetskoi trudovoi shkoly II stupeni S.O.N.O. [i.e. Youth Thought : Edition of the Students of the 17th Soviet Labor School of the II Stage of S.O.N.O.] #1 1921, #3 1922. 19 typewritten leaves with mounted illustrations; 14 typewritten leaves with mounted and drawn illustrations. In original handmade illustrated covers. #1: soiled, stain on the outer margin throughout the copy, otherwise very good. #3: good, soiled, some small fragments of cover and the last blank page lost.

This is three issues of samizdat magazine, published in the earliest years of the Soviet labor school. All issues have a unique design. Striking cover of #1 for 1920 shows the worker personified the revolution and opportunities of the new country. The issue #3 is opened by an attractive constructivist composition depicting the march.
Among the 1920s experiments in the education system, the united labor school occupied the special place. It was 7-9 grade school harmonically combined the theoretical, moral studies and work. The central issue of the pedagogy was how to introduce a young person into the socialist industrial culture. It was not possible to make the complete experiment in every school, but the pre-revolutionary, traditional educational system was rejected throughout the country: to follow not a textbook, but reality, to stimulate the teamwork. The second stage school was for the youth - this magazine was probably composed by 13-17-year-old authors.
The issues contain the materials given by students and, according to the foreword, some of them were difficult to obtain. The revolutionary story is next to the Easter story, there are poems, short eye-witness accounts and jokes - and this is extremely unexpected - the #1 for 1921 laughs at the сriminal procedure and the Red Army soldiers (full-page caricature). The black-and-white and colored illustrations were made by several chiefly anonymous artists (names of contributors are recorded in only #1 for 1920), the most drawings were made earlier and mounted on the pages just for decoration.
It is not known how many issues were made but possibly only these three.

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