Ukrainian Avant-Garde

Хелемский, Яков. (Yakov Chelemski).

Наші вороги. Nashi vorohy. (Our Enemy)

Ніжника, І. (Israel Nischnik) Illustrator.

Київ : Молодий більшовик

Kyïv : Molodyĭ bilʹshovyk 1931. (Publisher: Young Bolsheviks)

16 unnumbered pages with color illustrations.

24,5 x 17,5 cm. Original wrappers.

EUR 5000

The book *Наші вороги* (Ukrainian for “Our Enemies,” published in Russian as *Наши враги* / *Nashi wragi*) holds a very special place in Yakov Chelemski’s (1914-2003) biography: it is the very first book he published on his own as a young author. He was born in what is now Ukraine and spent his youth in Kyiv. In the early 1930s, he moved to Moscow, where he worked for various newspapers and studied at the Literary Institute. During World War II, Chelemski served as a volunteer front-line journalist and war correspondent for Soviet military newspapers. He took part in the Battle of Königsberg and captured his experiences in poems. After the war, he devoted himself entirely to literature and published around 20 volumes of poetry. He was also a prominent translator, primarily translating Belarusian poetry  into Russian.

The book was published by the Kyiv-based publishing house “Molodoj bolschevik” (The Young Bolshevik). Because the publisher is based in Ukraine, bibliographic references appear both under the Ukrainian title *Наші вороги* and under its Russian equivalent. In keeping with the spirit of the times in the early 1930s and the profile of the state-run youth publishing house, the work was a collection of poems with a political and ideological character intended for the Soviet youth of that era. It addressed the typical Soviet enemy stereotypes of that era (such as imperialism or class enemies), set against the backdrop of the revolutionary optimism of the time. Due to the rarity of his works, very few biographical documents about the illustrator Israel Markowitsch Nischnik (often written as Izrael Markovich Nizhnik in English transcription) have survived. He is considered part of the Soviet or Ukrainian avant-garde. He was born in 1907. During the first half of the 20th century, he worked primarily in Kyiv (Ukraine), first as a graphic designer and illustrator and later in the film industry.

I was able to find the following sources: https://www.togdazine.ru/article/3169  This website reproduces all 16 pages of the publication

OCLC list two copies: Harvard Library and University of Washington Libraries.

The only record of this book being sold commercially that I could find is: https://www.litfund.ru/auction/320/190/ At this Russian book auction, the book was listed with a reserve price of 3,320 U.S. dollars and sold for 4,500 U.S. dollars in 2021.

Condition: The cover has slight staining, slightly more pronounced on the back, with two torn Russian postage stamps. Value = 3 kopecks, farmer motif, from 1931–32. The paper clip is slightly rusted.