Chernyi, Aleksandr Mikhailovich

Sumbur-Trava [Muddle-Grass]

Munich: 1946. Kuznetsov, K., illustrator. Item #1458

38 pages: illustrations; 21 cm. Illustrated publisher's wrappers. With the "Approved by UNRRA Team 568, September 1946" censorship note. Wrappers browned and creased at edges; spine with small splits and shelfwear. Ink stamp of transport company on front wrapper and title page "Transport-Gesellschaft Eugen Kulakov, Muenchen", pencil notation at upper margin. The text block is partially detached from the wrappers.

A scarce and visually engaging example of Russian émigré satirical literature published in a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in post-WWII Germany. Known for his biting wit and grotesque imagery, Chernyi was one of the most irreverent figures of the Russian Silver Age, frequently publishing poetry and short prose that lampooned imperial, bourgeois, and later Soviet structures alike. This particular printing features dynamic illustrations by K. Kuznetsov that enhance Chernyi’s absurdist fable about pestilence, bureaucracy, and war—a work whose themes resonate acutely with the disorientation and devastation felt by the DP readership of the 1940s. Though the text originally predates the Soviet era, its republication in exile, with illustrations tailored for this edition, situates it squarely within the anti-totalitarian cultural output of the émigré press.

Price: $250.00