Walcher, Jacob [Ford or Marx]. Ford ili Marks.

Translation from the manuscript by O. Shargorodskaia.
Edited and with a preface by E. Lerner. 

Moskva, Profintern, 1925.
8vo, 168 pp.

In original pictorial wrappers. Uncut and partly unopened copy. 
In good condition, neatly rebacked preserving original spine.

One of 10 000 copies printed. 

The book by German communist politician and trade unionist Jacob Walcher (1887-1970) is a critique of Henry Ford’s principles outlined in his work ‘My Life and Work’ (1922), which was very popular in the USSR during the 1920s. Walcher worked on the Executive Committee of the Red International of Trade Unions in Moscow from 1924 to 1926. In 1928, he was excluded from the Communist Party of Germany and became a leading member of the illegal Socialist Workers' Party of Germany. After 1933, he emigrated to Paris, then escaped Nazi repression by moving to the USA, and was able to return to Germany only in 1946.
Interestingly, this Russian translation appeared the same year as the original book ‘Ford oder Marx’ and, according to the title, was made from the manuscript. The translation was prepared by O. Shargorodskaia, a female translator active in translating various political books in the 1920s. The text is accompanied by a preface by Elena Lerner. Like Shargorodskaia, there is very little information available about Lerner, but it is known that in 1937 she was the Chairman of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS).

OCLC locates two copies of this edition: in the British Library and the Berlin State Library.