Sivka-Burka, the Magic Horse: Russian folk tale. In Swahili with Mavrina's illustrations.

[Sivka-Burka, the Magic Horse: Russian folk tale]. Farasi Aitwaye Sivka-Burka: Hadithi ya watu wa kirusi.

In Swahili.
Translation by Omar Juma.
Adaptation by M. Bulatov.
Illustrations by T. Mavrina.

Moscow, Nyumba ya Kuchapia Vitabu kwa Lugha za Kigeni, 1950s.
8vo, 20 pp., ill.

In original illustrated wrappers.
Near very good condition. Slightly worn to the spine.

Rare.

This fairy tale with Mavrina's illustrations was first published in 1955, and it has since been translated into several languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, and Telugu.
Tatiana Lebedeva (1900/1902–1996), who used the pseudonym Mavrina, was a prominent Russian artist who studied under Robert Falk at VKhUTEMAS. She was a member of 'Group 13', a collective of graphic artists formed in 1929, and her first children's book with illustrations was published the same year. During the Stalin era, as many artists she turned to illustrating children's books as a way to avoid repression, and developed her own unique style after World War II. Her illustrations for Russian folktales have become iconic, and in 1976 she became the first Russian artist to win the Hans Christian Andersen Award for her work on children's books. 
The book is from the personal collection of Inna Shmeleva (1929-2020), an artist who studied under Ely Bielutin, the founder of The New Reality artistic academy. Shmeleva participated in the 30th anniversary of the Moscow Union of Artists at the Central Exhibition Hall (Manège) in 1962, an event that was severely criticized by Nikita Khrushchev and marked the end of the period known as the Khrushchev Thaw.

OCLC locates two copies of this edition: in the Eastern Michigan University Library and the University of South Carolina Library.