Krakhmalnikova, Zoya A. (editor)

Nadezhda: Khristianskoe chtenie [The Hope: Christian Reading]. Vols. 1-14 (complete)

Frankfurt: Posev, 1978. Item #1389

16.5 cm. Cover design by Adam Rusak. A very good set overall, with light foxing and minor wear to a few volumes.

Volume I (1978): 296 pages
Volume II (1979): 438 pages
Volume III (1979): 378 pages
Volume IV (1980): 392 pages
Volume V (1981): 408 pages
Volume VI (1981): 423 pages
Volume VII (1982): 400 pages
Volume VIII (1982): 392 pages
Volume IX (1983): 334 pages
Volume X (1984): 432 pages
Volume XI: Not published or not received, according to the official Posev bibliography.
Volume XII (1985): 200 pages
Volume XIII (1986): 297 pages
Volume XIV (1988): 310 pages

A complete 14-volume set (13 books) of Nadezhda is one of the most significant tamizdat contributions to late Soviet-era religious literature. Compiled by Zoya Krakhmalnikova (1929–2008), an Orthodox writer and editor, the journal began circulating in samizdat in 1976 in Moscow and was later printed in Frankfurt by the émigré publishing house Posev and discreetly returned to the USSR.

Krakhmalnikova, a philologist educated at the Gorky Literary Institute and the Institute of World Literature, lost her academic post at the Institute of Sociology after embracing the Orthodox faith. In response, she devoted herself to religious writing and education, launching Nadezhda as a spiritual journal intended for a wide readership. It revived the legacy of Khristianskoe chtenie, the pre-revolutionary Christian journal published in Russia from 1821 to 1917.

The journal included theological essays, patristic texts, sermons, and historical accounts, including writings on the "new martyrs" — victims of Soviet religious persecution. Though not explicitly political, the journal's spiritual depth and historical awareness made it a quiet act of resistance. Krakhmalnikova was arrested in 1983 and sentenced to one year in prison and five years of exile. At her sentencing, she stated, “I wasn’t guilty of producing Nadezhda—I was simply trying to re-establish what was suppressed 60 years ago.”

While she remained a modest figure in the émigré community and little known in the West, her work laid the foundation for the revival of Orthodox publishing in post-Soviet Russia.

Price: $500.00