The World Revolution Literature. One of the two lifetime publications of Takiji Kobayashi into Russian.

[Kobayashi, Takiji] [The World Revolution Literature: The Central Organ of the International Association of Revolutionary Writers]. Literatura Mirovoi Revoliutsii: Tsentralnyi organ Mezhdunarodnogo obedineniia revoliutsionnykh pisatelei. No 2 (1932). 

Cover by Solomon Telingater.

Moskva, Leningrad, Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo khudozhestvennoi literatury, 1932.
8vo, 119, [1] pp., ill.

In original wrappers.
Near good condition, overall wear and soil to wrappers, small water stain to front cover, tears to spine, soil to some pages, p. 71-74 detached from the book block, with post label to back cover.

One of the two lifetime publications of Takiji Kobayashi into Russian. One of 9 250 copies published.

This issue of the magazine of the International Association of Revolutionary Writers (published in 1931-1932) features the short novel 'The Crab Cannery Ship' (Kani Kōsen/蟹工船) by Japanese writer Takiji Kobayashi (小林 多喜二; 1903-1933). The original novel was published in 1929 and vividly portrays the harsh lives of cannery workers, fishermen, and seamen aboard a cannery ship, depicting the early stages of their rebellion against the company and its management. Remarkably, the full text of the novel was not available in Japan until 1948.
Kobayashi's significant literary contributions have been translated into numerous languages, including Russian, Chinese, English, Korean, Spanish, Basque, Italian, Portuguese, German, French, Polish, and Norwegian.
In 1932, 'The Crab Cannery Ship' was published twice in Russian: once in this magazine and once as a book, with no mention of the translator's name. We suppose both translations were done by Nataliya Feldman (1903-1975), who also translated Matsuo Bashō and wrote important Japanese textbooks. Feldman was the wife of the leading Soviet Japan specialist, Nikolai Konrad, who was arrested as a Japanese spy in 1938. In fact, Feldman narrowly escaped arrest herself. 'The Crab Cannery Ship', in her translation, was republished in 1957 as part of Kobayashi's selected works.
As a devoted communist, the writer's works continued to be translated and published until 1960, including in locations such as Kharkov in Ukrainian and Vladivostok.
The cover design for this magazine was created by the prominent graphic artist, illustrator, and typographer Solomon Telingater (1903-1969). Telingater was a founding member of the 'October' group, a collective of Constructivist artists, which also included Gustav Klutsis, Alexander Rodchenko, and El Lissitzky.
A few words about the magazine itself: 'The World Revolution Literature' magazine, which, together with 'The Bulletin of Foreign Literature' ('Vestnik inostrannoj literatury'), later became 'Internatsionalnaya Literatura' in 1933, held a unique position in the USSR as the sole magazine covering the cultural life of both the Western and Eastern worlds. It was dedicated to world proletarian and revolutionary literature and art. The executive editor of the magazine was the Polish poet Bruno Jasenski, who tragically met his demise during the Great Purge. The international editorial board included notable figures such as Martin Andersen Nexo, Henri Barbusse, John Dos Passos, and Upton Sinclair.