u/StanzaRareBooks

Note: book in Russian

The Bashkirs, a Turkic people of the Ural-Volga region who today form the Republic of Bashkortostan, are among the least-studied Turkic peoples in Western ethnographic literature, making this Soviet-era primary documentation particularly valuable. The book covers the full range of Bashkir settlement types: permanent village settlements (auls) with their street plans and spatial organization, khutors, seasonal hay-cutting and grazing encampments. This is followed by detailed treatment of rural permanent dwellings (log construction, clay, sod, and stone houses, semi-dugouts), temporary summer dwellings (yurts, conical and hemispherical shelters, log cabins), homestead layout, interior organization and furnishing, and architectural decoration including the carved wooden window frames, gable ornaments, and gates for which Bashkir vernacular architecture is known. Separate chapters address the territorial and ecological variation in dwelling types across the diverse geographical zones of Bashkiria. The study draws on materials from the ethnographic expeditions of the Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Bashkir Branch of the Academy of Sciences, as well as archival sources. The print run of 1,550 copies.

This 1924 Leningrad edition marks the first Russian translation of José Raúl Capablanca’s legendary autobiographical work, published just three years after he ascended the throne as the third World Chess Champion.

Note: book in Russian

Pavel Aleksandrovich Kamkin's scholarly examination explores Kholmogory bone carving, a distinguished craft tradition emblematic of Russian Northern cultural heritage. This first edition from 1927 represents an ethnographic study by a recognized authority on vernacular artistic practices, documenting the techniques and historical significance of this regional folk art form.

Note: in Azerbaijani (Cyrillic script)

"Köroğlu" ("Son of the Blind Man") is the great heroic epic of the Azerbaijani people, crystallizing by the seventeenth century out of songs and legends surrounding a historical or semi-historical hero who led a band of rebels against Ottoman and local oppression from his mountain stronghold of Chanlibel, mounted on his legendary horse Girat.

Note: book in Russian. Uncolored

GUM is the Soviet Union's flagship state department store on Red Square, whose in-house design studio functioned as a mass-market counterpart to the more exclusive Moscow and All-Union Fashion Houses.

Note: book in Russian

I’ve been contemplating the role of a collector in the life cycle of an antiquarian book. When a volume is in need of repair, where do you draw the line between preservation and modification? Some argue that original, even fragile bindings are the only way to maintain the historical "truth" of an object. Others feel that professional rebinding is a necessary step to ensure the survival of the text for future generations. What is your philosophy on this? Do you seek out volumes with their original binding, or are you comfortable with modern updates if they keep the book usable? 📚📚📚

Illustrated by I. Pyatkin

This is a striking example of Soviet trade-industry design ephemera: an internal product catalogue produced for the RSFSR alcohol industry by Rosglavspirt and issued through the specialized "Prodoformlenie" art-design combine, whose function was the visual design and packaging of Soviet food and drink products. Each rendered in vivid gouache-style illustration alongside its precise composition, alcohol content, and sugar content: Anise Liqueur, Mint Liqueur, Crystal Liqueur, Ukrainian Vodka with Pepper, Autumn Bitters, Orange Bitters, Rowan Bitters, "Stolichnaya" Vodka, and dozens more.

Note: book in Russian

Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik (1911–1995). Soviet chess player, world champion (1948–1957, 1958–1960, 1961–1963), engineer, and educator. Founder of the Soviet chess school, he made significant contributions to opening and endgame theory. His early achievements, detailed in the book, laid the foundation for his global fame.

Note: book in Russian

This 1935 sheet music edition represents a cultural phenomenon that redefined the Soviet musical landscape. The "March of the Jolly Fellows" (also known as "The Song of the Heart") was the centerpiece of the first Soviet musical film comedy, Jolly Fellows (1934), directed by Grigory Aleksandrov. Composed by Isaac Dunaevsky with lyrics by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach, the song became an unofficial anthem of the optimism and energy of the mid-1930s.

A scarce and fundamental first critical edition of the "Muhabbat-name" (The Book of Love), a masterpiece of fourteenth-century Golden Horde Turkic poetry. Composed in 1353 by the poet Khorezmi for the local ruler Muhammad Khwaja Beg, the work consists of love letters written primarily in Chagatai (Old Khorezmian Turkic) with elements of Persian verse. It remains a crucial monument for the study of the literary and linguistic history of Central Asia and the Golden Horde. This 1961 scholarly edition was prepared by the prominent Soviet Turkologist Emir Nadzhip. It includes a comprehensive philological introduction, the transliterated text, a parallel Russian translation, extensive glossaries, and photographic facsimiles of the original manuscript folios.

The present volume is the first scholarly critical text, established by the Azerbaijani Orientalist T. A. Magerramov from seven manuscripts and one lithographed edition, with a Russian preface, and issued in the prestigious academic series "Monuments of the Literature of the Peoples of the East" (Texts, Large Series, VII), co-published by the Institute of the Peoples of Asia in Moscow and the Institute of Oriental Studies in Baku under Nauka's Main Editorial Office of Oriental Literature. The Persian text is set in Arabic script and read from the reverse cover, with the Russian scholarly apparatus at the front.

Note: Magazine in Russian