Krashchomu druhovi pioneriv ta ditey Pavlovi Petrovychu Postyshevu raport pro nashi dila u zbyranni ta okhoroni bil'shovytskoho vrozhaya

Exceptionally scarce ukrainian photomontage during holodomor. An incredible albeit tragic work designed by Lev Pereshkol'nik dedicated to Pavel Postyshev, a top Soviet official who acted as Stalin's direct emissary in Ukraine during Holodomor. During 1932–3 Postyshev was given unprecedented powers to eliminate all opposition to collectivisation and to crush the Communists who defended Ukrainisation. The book is evidence of the cruelty with which the policies were enforced, encouraging children to act as vigilantes by attacking their peers. Portraits of children from across Ukraine are included with details below of how they have protected the harvest, either from helping collect grain or from catching thieves.

At a time when Stalin was everything, it is unusual for a publication to be glorifying a top Soviet figure other than Stalin himself. The frontispiece is a full bleed portrait of Postyshev which is highly incongruous with 1930s Soviet parade book style. Although the title declares him 'the best friend of the pioneers and children', he gained a reputation for being 'the hangman of Ukraine' and in 2010 a court in Kyiv found him posthumously guilty for complicity in genocide

Having acquired a taste for power Postyshev began to develop his own cult of personality and to consolidate his position in the republic by making some concessions to Ukrainian national sentiments in 1935–6. This development raised Stalin's suspicions. In 1937 Postyshev was removed from Ukraine and appointed first secretary of the Kuibyshev Oblast Party Committee. He was arrested in January 1938, executed a year later. This book is testament to the image Postyshev wanted to portray and abetted his downfall. It is highly likely that the work is so rare as Moscow actively sought to pulp all copies as they often did with authors and artists who fell out of favour.

What is perhaps most shocking is the dissonance between the reality of what was happening in Ukraine at the time and the text. This book was published in October 1933, well after the horrors of Holodomor would have been apparent but the text regards:

'We recently had some pioneer guests from England. They told us about their life abroad...They have poor people there, unemployment. Lords, fascists and popes are roaming around. Children of working people are starving and dying there. School doors are closed to them. From an early age it's necessary for them to work under the hard yoke of the master. Unenlightened life abroad is not fun. We in the Soviet Union do not know the horrors of capitalist life. Everything that is good exists only for us...' (translation is our own).

Lev Pereshkolnyk (1902-1976), a Kharkiv-born and based artist, is better known for his posters, including the works depicting Kharkiv's economy in the 1st and 2nd 5-year plans. In this edition the artists included 7 full-scale photomontages (one featuring a korovai bread with the baked 'to the best shock-worker – Stalin' on it), alongside photographs and caricaturesque drawings, depicting the children's kolkhoz life. Together with the unusual binding, bold usage of blank space and margins, striking layouts, the book is a masterful example of photomontage design.

WorldCat locates just one copy, at McGill University.

First and only edition, 4to (30.1 x 22.2); [28]pp., photomontage illustrations throughout; in the original photomontage boards with a cut-out design, spine and edges a little scuffed, slight scratch to top of lower board and small loss of paper, staples a little rusted otherwise a very good copy.

Not in Karasik.