Kirsanov, Semen Isaakovich (1906 - 1972) Voina - chume. M., Sovetskii pisatel´, 1937. 77 p. €150
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8 vo, semi - abstract publisher´covers designed by L.Smolianskii and somehow related to theme of plague germ warfare. Very top of the spine chipped, otherwise good clean copy. printed on better paper. Very rare.

Anti - Nazi and to some extent anti - German poem accusing Germany of secret experiments and tests in biological warfare on the USSR´s territory. The main theme of the poem is related to germ warfare connected with experiments of plague´s germs. Detailed description of plague contaminated bullets 'chum - chum' already developed by German chemistry researches in Nuremberg.

Poem also depicts spymania campaign in Russia in mid 1930s and political trials of the period. Some passages in poem describe German atrocities in Spain during civil war. Poem is written in Maykovsky style by virulent pen for masses. Poet cleverly used Russian folklore motives (chastushka and city romance) to bring poem to the hearts of ordinary people.

Hitler, Mussolini and Japanese military are attacked on many occasions. Some measures were taken to restrict poem´s circulation after Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact, also known as Nazi - Soviet Pact.

Semen Kirsanov was a Russian - Soviet poet. He was the organizing force in Odessa in 1921 behind the Southern Association of Futurists. In 1925, Vladimir Maiakovskii published two of his poems in his journal LEF, having met the younger poet on a visit to Odessa. Upon moving to Moscow the same year, Kirsanov began an apprenticeship with Mayakovsky and the poet Nikolay Aseev and, in the public imagination, inherited his mentor's torch after Mayakovsky's death in 1930.This very torch he used shortly after Maykovsky´s death in his agitprop style poems after his mentor´s death and continued to use for years till mid 1950s.

See: Maxim D. Schrayer's An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature, Vol. 1.