[SOVIET JEWISH] Dni zavziattia [i.e. Days of Zest]

[Kharkiv]: Derzhavne vydavnytstvo Ukrainy, 1929. 101, [2] pp.: ill.+1 p. of ad. 22x16 cm. In original illustrated wrappers. Spine and edge of back cover restored, title page rubbed, few small stains on covers, otherwise very good and clean internally.
Second edition. One of 5000 copies. Translated to Ukrainian by M. Shcherbak.

Ukrainian edition of the book 'Dni boevye' (1924) written by Jewish writer Sergei Auslander (1886-1937). During the Civil war, he served at Kolchak's government and was the main speech writer of Kolchak. He escaped shortly before the city of Omsk (Kolchak's Headquarters) was seized by the Reds. For the following wartime years, Auslander hid working under pseudonym in a labor commune in Tomsk, then returned to Moscow. Since the pre-revolutionary period, he was acquainted with
Bolshevik revolutionary Vyacheslav Menzhinsky (the latter became chairman of the Soviet secret police in 1926, after the death of Dzerzhinsky).
Most likely, it helped Auslander during the early post-revolutionary period. At that time, the writer turned to children's literature and participated in foundation of the Moscow Theater of Young Spectator. In Soviet traditions, Auslander released books on the struggle of political organizations against tsarism, about an unrest in 1905, about re-education of juvenile offenders, an uprising in China, African people groaning under the heel of colonialism, etc. In 1937, Sergei Auslander was blamed for anti-Soviet propaganda and executed.

Cover design and illustrations are created by Jewish artist Anatoly (Tankhum) Kaplan (1903-1980). In 1922, he entered the painting faculty of VKHUTEIN and studied under A. Rylov, K. Petrov-Vodkin, N. Radlov. After graduation, Kaplan was involved in industrial graphics and book illustration. In the late 1930s, he worked in an
experimental lithographic workshop supervised by G. Vereiskii. Throughout his lifetime, Kaplan's art was closely associated with Jewish folklore and Yiddish literature. He illustrated works of a number of Jewish writers, as well as folk songs.

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