Details

Subject(s)

• Children's literature—Soviet Union [Browse]
• Children's stories, Russian [Browse]
• Children's poetry, Russian [Browse]

Related name

• Chukovskiĭ, Korneĭ, 1882-1969 [Browse]

Ill

• Annenkov, I︠U︡riĭ, 1889-1974 [Browse]
• Benois, Alexandre, 1870-1960 [Browse]
• Chekhonin, Sergeĭ Vasilʹevich, 1878-1936 [Browse]
• Dobuzhinskiĭ, Mstislav Valerianovich, 1875-1957 [Browse]
• Lebedev, Vladimir Vasilʹevich, 1891-1967 [Browse]
• Mitrokhin, Dmitriĭ Isidorovich, 1883-1973 [Browse]
• Radakov, Alekseĭ Aleksandrovich, 1879-1942 [Browse]
• Repin, Ilya [Browse]

Notes

• One of the pivotal books in modern juvenile literature. When Gorky founded "Parus" (The Sail) his progressive publishing house in St. Petersburg on the eve of the Russian Revolution, he was committed to starting a line of revolutionary children's books and got Benois and Chukovsky to compile this anthology from many of the most brilliant authors and artists of the day. Elka is the very first children's book to be published under the Bolsheviks. It was intended to be an annual, but it never went beyond this one volume. Although its appearance was announced for Spring 1917, to coincide with Easter, the Revolution delayed publication and the title of the annual had to be changed from Raduga ("Rainbow" to Elka (Fir Tree) for the Christmas season. It did not finally appear until February 1918.
• The text and illustrations of the books exemplify the transition from the lush decorate phase of the pre-revolutionary Silver Age to the modernism of the early Soviet regime. Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) artists like Benois,Chekhonin, Dobuzhinskii and Mitrokhin share space with avent-garde designers Annenkov,Lebedev and Puni. Among the highlights of of the volume are Gorky's original fairy tale "Samovar" and Chukovsky's retelling of the English folk tale of Jack the Giant-Killer. Cherny, one of the greatest of the early Russian nonsense poets and the most popular children's poet of the Russian émigrées. Although his wife is credited with the authorship of "Ierniya-lentyai", Puni actually wrote the story which he illustrates here.
• The book marked both the end of one era and the beginning of another. Gorky, Benois,Dobuzhinskii, Chekhonin, Annenkov, Puni, and Cherny soon departed for the west, leaving Chukovsky and Lebedev to establish modern Russian children's literature and illustration. Elka was later criticized for containing the residue of "petit bourgeois" society, such as Benois' Christmas tree inside and Lebedev's Ded Moroz (the Russian Santa Claus) on the cover.
• Gankina, p. 59. Leveque pp. xxvii-xxviii. RATS 62.

Binding note

white bds, orange & black ill. red, yellow, green ill. e.p.

Other format(s)

Also available in an electronic version.

OCLC

179210824

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