[WITH ARCTIC MAPS - INSCRIBED] - [From the Shores of America: commemorative historical compendium of the Association of former Russian naval officers in America, 1923 - 1938].: S beregov Ameriki...

The Russian Navy and the Americas: warmly inscribed by one of the authors to the first Russian submarine commander in the Pacific. "Very rare" (Savine) illustrated émigré publication, with historical folding maps featuring the arctic coast of Russia from Europe to the North-West passage and the Alaska.

The compendium is divided into two parts, each comprising thematic articles written by different Navy officers and commanders. The first part is an overview of the history and achievements of the Russian Navy from the times of Peter the Great (creation of the Russian fleet) up until the first post-revolution year. It focuses in particular on Siberia, the history of the Alaskan Russian-American colonies and on discoveries in the Arctic and the North Pacific.

The second part is dedicated mostly to Russian naval officers in the US, especially the Association of Former Russian Naval Officers in America, which was established in New York in May 1923 by a group of 90 senior officers of the Russian Navy.

The book features valuable contemporary materials, including official documents, orders, service lists and biographies.

Provenance

Handwritten dedication on the title page to Alexander Vladimirovich Plotto from one of the authors, Vladimir Shmidt (1883-1965), Russian captain and a hero of the Port Arthur defense; after the October Revolution, he immigrated to the US where he became a noted hydrographer, a lecturer at Columbia University, and the first churchwarden of the Russian Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in New York.

Aleksander von Plotto (1869 – 1948) was a rear admiral, first submarine commander in the Pacific during the Russo-Japanese War. After the Russian Civil War, immigrated to Greece at the invitation of Queen Olga.

Avenir Nizoff (émigré, pianist, who lived in Edmonton, Canada, in the second half of the 20th century, and gathered a large, wide-ranging library of Russian works, especially covering art, history and literature).

Description

Large 8vo (23 x 16.5 cm). Title, table of content, dedication, editor's note, and 356 pp., with portrait plate of Tsar Nicholas II, 3 folding maps, and 17 illustrations in text, incl. 9 tipped-in and 2 full-page battle plans.

Binding

Dark-green cloth, publisher's illustrated cover pasted on upper board, flat spine.

Condition

Cloth rubbed and a bit worn, more so at extremities and hinges, upper wrapper rubbed and stained; occasional minor staining, a couple pencil notes, rather fresh internally.