[Pasternak, Boris] VOKS Bulletin. No 3-4 (1943). 

In English.
Editor-in-Chief Vladimir Kemenov.

Moscow, U.S.S.R. Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, [1943].
8vo, 67, [1] pp., ill.

In original pictorial wrappers and modern slipcase.
In good condition, lightly rubbed and soiled, some sunning to wrappers, some chipping to front cover, dogears to front cover and some pages.

A rare and little-known essay on Shakespeare by Pasternak in English. Wartime edition.

The bulletin was prepared and published by the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS) — a Soviet propaganda organization created to present the new country (the USSR) to the world in a favorable light and to cultivate support among foreign intellectuals and scholars. The organization coordinated exchanges between Soviet and foreign writers, artists, scientists, musicians, and other cultural figures. It organized exhibitions, lectures, concerts, sports events, and publications aimed at strengthening the Soviet Union’s international image.
VOKS also published its own multilingual periodical — the VOKS Bulletin — in English, German, and French, which was distributed to institutions around the world.
One of the most significant pieces in this particular issue is the essay 'Concerning Shakespeare' by Boris Pasternak (p. 57). It was originally published under the title ‘Moi Novye Perevody’ (‘My New Translations’) in issue No. 47 of ‘Ogonyok’ magazine in 1942, while this edition appears to be its only publication in English.
William Shakespeare was a lifelong passion and subject of serious study for Boris Pasternak(1890–1960). To mark the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Pasternak wrote two essays — both of which, unfortunately, have not survived. In the late 1930s and 1940s, he began translating Shakespeare’s tragedies. Over time, he completed Russian translations of eight of Shakespeare’s plays — 'Hamlet', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Antony and Cleopatra', 'Othello', 'King Lear', 'Macbeth', and both parts of 'Henry IV' — as well as the Sonnets. His translations are still regarded as among the finest in the Russian language.
In this essay, Pasternak reflects on the wartime circumstances under which he translated 'Romeo and Juliet', his plans to work on 'Antony and Cleopatra' for a production at the Moscow Art Theatre, and the contrasting attitudes toward Shakespeare expressed by figures such as Voltaire and Tolstoy. Particularly striking are Pasternak’s own thoughts — remarkably free and unconventional for a Soviet writer. He writes: 'We hear the voice of a genius, a king among kings and a judge over the gods, the voice of the later western democracies, the foundation of which is the proud merit of toiler and fighter'.
The English-language version of the essay is referenced in Lazar Fleishman’s ‘Boris Pasternak: The Poet and His Politics’ (Harvard University Press, 1990), but it appears to have received little attention elsewhere. 
This issue is accompanied by another edition of the VOKS Bulletin (January–February 1941), published in Russian and featuring an article by a literary critic, Shakespearean Mikhail Morozov (1897–1952) titled ‘Shekspir na Sovetskoi Stsene’ (‘Shakespeare on the Soviet Stage’).