Földvári Books

Illustrated and Signed by Kukryniksy

Sholokhov, Mikhail; [Kukryniksy]; [Béla, Illés]; [Iovchuk, Mikhail Trifonovich]

Sudba Cheloveka. [Fate of a Man.]

Moskva: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1964. Illustrated edition by Kukryniksy. Association copy, inscribed by all three artists of the Kukryniksy collective. Provenance: inscribed to “Aleksey Filippovich”, who later presented it to Béla Illés. In publisher’s illustrated cloth. 66 [2] p. Cover dusted, inside clean, overall in very good condition.

Kukryniksy inscribed and illustrated edition of the Russian-Soviet Nobel-prize winner Sholokhov’s short story, Fate of a Man. The illustrations were created after the 1959 award-winning Soviet film adaptation of Sholokhov’s short story by Kukryniksy, the most influential collective of propaganda artists of the USSR. The acronym Kukryniksy derives from the names of the artists: Mikhail Kupriyanov, Porfiri Krylov, Nikolai Sokolov. The book is inscribed by Kukryniksy (signed by each artist) to a certain Aleksey Filippovich in 1965, who gave the book to the devoted Communist Hungarian writer Béla Illés (1895–1974) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1967. The book with the inscriptions was accompanied by a postcard (included here) with Aleksey Filippovich’s autograph regards to Illés and his family. In addition: Mikhail Trifonovich Iovchuk’s (1908–1990; Soviet philosopher and party official) invitation card to Sholokhov’s 70th birthday, organized by Soviet institutes and universities; and four postcards, each with different photographs of Sholokhov (printed in 1975).

Price: €1,500.00