Sel´vinskii, Il´ia L´vovich (1899 - 1968)	Izbrannye stikhi. [M.,] OGIZ [Otdelenie Gosudarstvennogo Izdatel´s tva] Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel´stvo Khudozhestvennoi Literatury, [1934] 173 p. (Biblioteka sovremennykh poetov)	€275,00

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Not in Houghton, BL or NYPL, Slavonic Division. 8 vo, publisher´s linen binding. Selvinsky´s attractive engraved portrait by A.Soloveichik, a talented and prolific Soviet graphic artist, embossed on front cover in light brown from artist´s original plate. Binding designed by A.Soloveichik as well. VERY GOOD. An important edition for a researcher of Soviet literary policies in 1930s through early 1980s and for a historian of Russian censorship prior to late 1980s. Edited and prefaced by O. S. Reznik, Soviet literary critic and specialist on Selvinsky.A great number of Selvinsky´s poems and epigrams were censored or omitted in all later editions.Some were distorted by Soviet editors and censors, including O.S.Reznik. The best collections of pre WW II verses, epic poems, anecdotes and epigrams by Russian Soviet poet, playwright, and novelist. Version of the epic poem Ulialaevshchina (The Lay of Ulyalaev; 1924, first published 1927) included. Ulialaevshchina describes the fortunes of a kulak, Ulialaev, ‘who seized an estate from its pre-Revolutionary owner and was later defeated in an anarchist rebellion by the Red Army. Selvinsky’s depictions are folkloric. The hero’s wife, first taken from the landowner, is brutally murdered, her corpse dragged by a horse, and her head impaled on a spear by the Red commander. Ulialaev himself is shot and decapitated. In the 1950s this tale had to be rewritten, and its hero became Lenin’ (Evelyn Bristol, A History of Russian Poetry, OUP, 1991, p. 255). An important version of the novel in verse Pushtorg (Fur Trade; 1928) also included. Differs from later editions. Versions of 'Anekdoty o karaimskom filosofe Babakai-Sudduke” (Anecdotes about the Karaite Philosopher Babakai-Sudduk; 1931) and earlier version of tragedy Kommandarm-2. Tragedy 'Komandarm- 2' was staged in 1929 by Vsevolod Meyerhold. 'Selvinsky was a grandson of a Crimean Jew (Krymchak). Born in Simferopol’ and grew up in Evpatoriia, publishing his first poem in 1915. In the 1920s, he experimented with Yiddishisms and thieves’ lingo and is credited with bringing innovations to Russian verse forms.Turbulent adventures fueled Sel’vinskii’s longer narrative works and cycles, which are noted for their details of local color. Selvinsky joined anarchist troops during the Russian Civil War and later fought on the side of the Red Army. Moved to Moscow in 1921, where from 1924 to 1930 he led the Literary Center of Constructivists and achieved acclaim for his verse collection Rekordy (Records; 1926), Ulialiaevshchina: Epopeia (The Lay of Ulyalaev), and the narrative poem Zapiski poeta (Notes of a Poet; 1927.)' Seeking to restore his official reputation after independent literary groups were dismantled, Selvinsky composed a number of poems for many 'Agitprop' campaigns of 1940´s. ' He weathered Stalinism and remained a major literary figure during the post-Stalin years'.--Maxim D.Shrayer See: Victor Terras Handbook of Russian Literature, pp. 394–395 (New Haven, 1985), Z. S. Kedrina, “Poeziia Il’i Sel’vinskogo,” in Izbrannye proizvedeniia, eds. I. L. Mikhailova and N. G. Zakharenko, pp. 5–47 (L., 1972); Kazak, Wolfgang (1976, 1986 and1988); Kratkaia evreiskaia entsiklopediia, vol. 7, pp. 742–743 (Jerusalem, 1994), Hellyer Russian Modernism ; AnatoliiTarasenkov.