Burliuk, David, Vladimir Burliuk, and others.

Sbornik Pervyi [First Collection], 1915, [limited to 5000 copies], 12 plates by Rozanova, D. and V. Burliuk, Kul’bin, Siniakova and Lentulov; Sbornik Vtoroi [Second Collection], 1916, [limited to 500 copies], 1 coloured plate by Kul’bin; Sbornik Tretii i Poslednii [The Third and Last Collection], 1922, [limited to 300 copies], 18 illustrations, 14 full-page, by D. Burliuk, Annenkov, Al’tman, Chagall, and Lebedev



3 volumes, 8vo (255 x 194mm., 254 x 186mm., 285 x 198mm.), original pictorial wrappers, cover designs by Kul’bin and Burliuk, inscriptions on title-pages, occasional slight marginal discolouration, rebacked, wrappers restored

Hellyer 493; Ex-Libris 244, 244a; The Russian Avant-Garde Book 114, 115, 124, 447; Compton (1978),  p. 126

Strelets was a miscellany founded in 1915 by Alexander Belenson and within its pages the entire Hylaea group, A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov, B. Livshits', the Burliuks, V. Kamenskii and V. Mayakovsky, Symbolists such as A. Blok and F. Sologub, and other Avant-Gardists such as N. Evreinov and A. Lur’e can be found represented. The first issue evoked wide-ranging responses from acceptance of the Futurists to refusal to condone the association of the literary establishment with the radical Futurists. The second number caused general indignation and alienated many who had accepted the first issue. The only Futurist represented is Mayakovsky whose erotic poetry caused an uproar, and there were two anti-semitic pieces by V. Rozanov which also alienated many. The tone of the third issue was pre-set by the response to the second and by Belenson’s split from Mayakovsky and retreat into conservatism, abandoning much of Futurism. Contributors to this issue included A. Akhmatova, M. Kuz’min and F. Sologub. The illustrations are also far more generally abstract as opposed to Futurist in style.