Sorokin, Pitirim [The Systems of Sociology. Social Analytics]. Sistema Sotciologii. Sotsialnaya Analitika. 2 vol.

Petrograd, Izd-skoe t-vo Kolos, 1920. 
8vo, XIV, [2], 360 pp.; 463, [1] pp.

In original wrappers. Signed and inscribed on p. 1 of volume II.

Signed and inscribed by the author: 'Dorogomu Pavlu Isaevichu / Lyublinskomu / v znak glubokogo uvazheniya i / priznatel'nosti / ot avtora' [To the esteemed Pavel Isaevich Lyublinskiy, with profound respect and gratitude from the author]. 
First edition of Sorokin's first book on sociology.
Pitirim Sorokin's signed Russian books are very rare.

Russian-born distinguished American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968), who set the standard for the field, began his studies at the Bekhterev Psychoneurological Institute in Saint Petersburg. Unfortunately, he was unable to pay the tuition fees and was excluded after the first year. Eventually, he completed his studies in the law faculty of Saint Petersburg University, where he remained as a lecturer, preparing to qualify for a professorship. This book is signed to his university teacher, the criminologist and lawyer Pavel Lyublinskiy (1882-1938).
During the revolutionary years in Russia, Sorokin was actively involved in politics: in 1917, he served as secretary to Alexander Kerensky, the Minister-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government. After the October Revolution, Sorokin was arrested several times and even sentenced to death, but he was released after publishing a letter announcing the end of his political activity.
Finally, he became the founder of the Sociology Department at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University in Petrograd and wrote this monograph. According to Sorokin's own confession, this book, which made him the leading sociologist in Russia, represents 'the foundational stone of all his subsequent sociocultural theories'. Sorokin planned to publish ten volumes of 'System of Sociology' but was forced to emigrate in 1922. The book was banned in Soviet Russia until 1958.
Sorokin settled in the USA, where he worked at the University of Minnesota and published four important books. Harvard's President, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, invited Sorokin to chair the University's first Department of Sociology, marking a significant step forward for the discipline. Sorokin argued that sociologists spend too much time studying destructive social behaviors and advocated for a focus on making people more humane, compassionate, and giving. This concern led Sorokin to a decade-long study of altruism and amitology. With support from the Lilly Endowment, he established the Harvard Center for Creative Altruism. In 1963, Sorokin was elected President of the American Sociological Association.