Yershov, Pyotr Pavlovich (1815-1869)

Konek-Gorbunok: Skazka [The Little Humpbacked Horse: A Fairy Tale]

Munich: Izd. Viacheslav Klavdievich Zavalishin, 1945. Kuznetsov, Konstantin (cover design); Puzyrevsky, Nikolai Vladimirovich (illustrations). Original illustrated wrappers. Item #338

Dimensions: 20.5 x 14.5 cm. 86 pages: illustrations. Text in Russian. A slight wear along the edges, and little tears (almost invisible) on several pages but the condition is still very good for a book that was meant to be heavily used.

A legendary publication of the DP era (the first DP publication done in a typographical way) and one of the scarcest publications by Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov. Edited with an introductory article by Viacheslav Klavdievich Zavalishin. Cover by Konstantin Kuznetsov; five full-page woodcuts by Nikolai Vladimirovich Puzyrevsky on coated paper (not included in pagination). It does not bear the stamp of the occupation authorities "Approved for printing," which in those years was required for any publications.

"As far as I know, The Little Humpbacked Horse was the first book published in a typographical way in 1945. (In the beginning, everything was mimeographed.) "Viacheslav Zavalishin published the Little Hunchback" for camp children. R. Polchaninov wrote about him that Viacheslav Klavdievich Zavalishin, who lived in Munich, published books without asking permission from UNRRA. He did not give his "publishing house" any name. To this, I will add that for Viacheslav Klavdievich, who was in German captivity (and escaped from there!) and fell into the clutches of the Gestapo, and some random resolutions were not a decree. Yes, he always and everywhere lived only in his way." (From the article by Valentina Sinkevich, "The Second Wave of Russian Emigration")

This book was published by the Russian refugees and printed in a very small run to be distributed in post-war Germany's Displaced Persons (DP) camps. Due to difficult circumstances in those camps, including a lack of resources and military censorship, such publications are a testament to the resilience and determination of the displaced persons community during this challenging time in history.

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