Solzhenitsyn | A collection of Russian editions and translations, 1962-1966, and a Soviet censorship listing, 10 vols

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

A collection of Russian editions and translations into Estonian and Lithuanian, 1962-1966, including the first printing of One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, along with the official Soviet list of censored publications from 1981, comprising:

Odin den Ivana Denisovicha. Povest [One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. A story], in: Novyi Mir, no.11, 1962. Moscow, 1962, FIRST PUBLICATION, 8vo, original printed wrappers, binding slightly creased

Odin den Ivana Denisovicha. Povest [One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. A story]. Moscow: Sovetskii Pisatel, 1963, FIRST BOOK EDITION, 8vo, original printed wrappers

Odin den Ivana Denisovicha. Povest [One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. A story], in: Roman Gazeta, no. 1, 1963. Moscow: Goslitizdat, 1963, 4to, printed wrappers, backstrip slightly worn

Dva rasskaza [Two stories], in: Novyi Mir, no.1, 1963. Moscow, 1963, 8vo, original printed wrappers

Dlya polzydela, rasskaz [For the good of the cause, a story], in: Novyi Mir, no.7, 1963. Moscow, 1963, 8vo, original printed wrappers

Zakhar-kalita, rasskaz [Zakhar-kalita, a story], in: Novyi Mir, no.1, 1966. Moscow, 1966, 8vo, original printed wrappers

Asja huvides [For the good of the cause]. Tallinn: Ajalehtede-Ajakirjade Kirjastus, 1964, 8vo, original printed wrappers

Üks päev Ivan Denissovitši elus [One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich]. Tallinn: Ajalehtede-Ajakirjade Kirjastus, 1963, 8vo, original printed wrappers

Viena Ivano Denisovičiaus diena [One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich]. Vilnius: Valstybine Grožines Literatûros Leidykla, 1963, 8vo, original printed boards

Gosudarstvennyi komitet SSSR po delam izdatelstv, poligrafii i knizhnoi torgovli [USSR State committee for publishing, printing and the book trade]. Spisot knig, ne podlezhashikh rasprostraneniyu v knigotorgovoi seti [List of books not subject to distribution in the bookselling network]. Moscow, 1981, copy number 3321, original printed wrappers

A COLLECTION OF THE ONLY WORKS BY SOLZHENITSYN TO BE ISSUED WITHIN THE SOVIET UNION, WITH A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL LIST OF BOOKS NOT TO BE SOLD OR CIRCULATED, WHICH RESULTED IN THEIR REMOVAL OR DESTRUCTION.

Solzhenitsyn's novella One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, chronicling an ordinary day in the gulag, first appeared in the journal Novyi Mir in November 1962, in the post-Stalin era; this was the first significant literary work to address life in the gulag (where Solzhenitsyn had spent the years 1945-1953), and it received Khrushchev's approval for publication (without which it would not have been published). Other works subsequently appeared in Novyi Mir but the political atmosphere became more difficult and Solzhenitsyn was exiled to the West in 1974 following the publication in France of his more troublesome Gulag Archipelago.

The Soviet body responsible for publishing, Goskomizdat, issued lists of publications that were not to be sold by bookstores or held by libraries, resulting in the destruction of most copies within the USSR; despite the substiantial print runs of the Novyi Mir, Roman Gazeta and the first book edition of One day, few copies are now to be found in Russian libraries. The section on Solzhenitsyn in this 1981 edition lists all nine of the titles in this lot, indicating that they were printed officially and then officially banned. The restrictions on books and publishing did of course lead to a substantial black market in books and the creation of samizdat editions.