Apletin, Mikhail, editor.

[EDUCATING SOVIET CHILDREN – AVANT-GARDE] W.O.K.S. Sozialistischer Aufbau in der USSR (Wrapper title: W.O.K.S. Die Schule in der USSR) [Socialist construction in the USSR. Schools in the USSR], no. 1–2.

Moscow: WOKS, 1933. Octavo (26.3 × 17.8 cm). Original photo-illustrated wrappers; 183, [1] pp. Illustrations, tables. Light soil and creasing to wrappers, professional restoration to spine and wrapper extremities, with some loss to spine title; lightly toned due to stock; still about very good. Item #55707

A single volume of this illustrated German-language series advertising progress in Soviet education, published by VOKS (Vsesoiuznoie Obschestvo Kul’turnoi Sviazi s Zagranitsei, or the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Other Countries), with unattributed Constructivist-inspired wrappers. Numerous illustrations throughout the volume show new modernist school buildings across the Soviet Union, from Leninakan (Gyumri, Armenia) to Leningrad (Russia), children learning to ski and skate, attending museum exhibitions, creating placards for demonstrations, building airplane models, eating in communal cafeterias and being examined by a medical commission. Articles in the volume cover topics such as fighting illiteracy in the villages, education of “juvenile offenders”, “Museum and Exhibition Work with Children”, “Training and Professional Development of Teachers”, and an article on “Schools of the Nationalities”. Published six times a year starting in 1928, each volume had a special focus, covering topics such as Soviet Collective Farms, Soviet Literature, and Soviet Industry. Founded in 1925, the official mission of VOKS was cultural exchange, while unofficially it was rumored to be a front for Soviet spying, with the rear wrappers advertising organized guided tours of the Soviet Union, especially its industrial centers in Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipro, Ukraine) and the newly built Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant. Producing propaganda publications in English, French, and German such as this one, was another function of VOKS. The editor of the volume, literary critic and educator Mikhail Apletin (1885–1981), was general secretary of VOKS in 1932–1935.

As of May 2026, KVK, OCLC show one copy of this volume in North America.

Price: €500.00

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