Zaitsev, Boris Konstantinovich (1881 - 1972)	Tikhiia zori. Razskazy. 17 - 22 tysiacha. Berlin - Peterburg - Moskva, Izdatel´stvo Z. I. Grzhebina, 1922. 223 p.	€675

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8 vo, decorative publisher´s card-board covers with blue lettering designed by Nikolai Zaretskii (?) or Pavel Muratov (?) On half-title page: Boris Zaitsev Sobranie sochinenii Kniga I Izdatel´stvo Z. I. Grzhebina Berlin - Peterburg - Moskva 1922. FINE. ( 'Book Chamber/RNB Rare Book Room/Quaritch' condition.' ) Boris Zaitsev was favored by Russian émigré readers for decades.Publishing history of his émigé books is fascinating and still awaits a serious researcher.All Boris Zaitsev´s books printed in 1920s became rare already in the late 1950s.Very rare in such state. FIRST ÉMIGRÉ EDITION.Second issue of 5000 copies.Out of 5000 printed up to 4500 were confiscated, with many copies going to pulp factory or furnace shortly after 1922.Differs from 1916 edition and 1961 reissue. It´s the very publication which destroyed Grzhebin Verlag and brought untimely health problems and in the final untimely death to the man behind it. The book was printed by Zinovy Grzhebin as a part of Mega - publishing project to supply [cover?] the entire Russian book, educational and library markets with better quality books, brochures and educational materials printed in Germany and Sweden. The entire project had to be completed between late 1918 and 1922/1923 with full financial support on the side of new Soviet Government. Publishing multi-volume editions by contemporary writers was an integral and vital part of this Mega - project, promising lofty profits and quick return of capital. Boris Zaitsev multi - volume 'Sobranie sochinenii' in seven or eight volumes was in the center of program. [4 line comments, biblioggraphy-vk] See: Kasack, Wolfgang (1976,1976 and 1988), Guerra (1982) DRAFT: (Description under constraction) As early as in 1918 the Soviet Government signed contract with Zinovii Grzhebin and Maxim Gorky and advanced almost seven millions of rubles in hard currency, in gold coins and in gold bars for this publishing venture. Both men received also I.O.U. notes and lofty credits, backed with Government´s top brass I.O.U. Additional advance followed.On later occasion a transfer of 50 000 British pounds was advanced to both 'partners', Gorky and Grzhebin. Vladimir I. Lenin and Anatolii V. Lunacharskii were major players and benefitiaries in Grzhebin and Gorky´s publishing venture. The goal was to print outside Russia in the period of three or four years (1918 - 1921/1922) not less but rather more than 2 000 pamphlets, textbooks, manuals and 800 volumes of fiction, including books by contemporary Russian writers.Those still stayin in Russia and those who lived outside Russia proper, mainly in Berlin. Vladimir I. Lenin and Anatolii V. Lunacharskii played a greater role as benefitiaries of the publishing venture. The rest of the story reads like a political thriller and even today, almost 100 years later, attracts the attention of book culture historians at heated scholarly discusiions on the true nature of Zinovii Grzhebin´s Mega - project.The discussion even spilled on the other side of the Atlantic. One can even call Boris Berezovky/Roman Abramovich tandem as 'Grzhebin Affair of Yesterday'. Zinovy ben Isaja Grzhebin was born in July 1877 at Chuguyiv, Kharkov province (today´s Ukraine). He graduated from the Kharkyv Art College as graphic artist and then studied in Munich at Holloshi´s Studio and in Paris.After returning to Russia he becomes one of the major persons in Russian literary life during 1905 revolution and in the later years. His pre - 1917 publishing activities in Russia are well documented and known to many historians of Russian book culture and Russian literature of the period.Period from 1918 and to his untimely death in Paris is still waiting for dobrosovestnyi researcher on the both sides of the Atlantic. [... to compress the exposition,to proof- read + bibliography and finish by 2012-10-12-vc] See: Neizvestnyi Gor´kii.[...] tom 3; Gor´kii i ego epokha: Materialy i issledovaniia (1981); Iosif Gessen; Gor´kii, M Neopublikovannaia korrespondentsiia ( 2000); Gessen, I.V. Gody izgnaniia [...] (Paris, 1979), Anna Tcherkessova - Benois papers, Irina Grjebine private archive, A-nce Securit´e archive...