Detskoe Chtenie. Knizhechka No. 1/Knizhechka No. 2 (Children's Reading. Books No. 1 and 2)

Kharbin: Tipografiia Kazansko-Bogoroditskago Muzhekogo Monastyria, 1929. Softcover. First editions, issues 1 and 2 for January and February, 1929; 7 3/4 x 5 1/2; illustrated wraps; issue 1 with thin cuts at tips of spine, spotting to margins of pages, illustrated, very good condition; issue 2 lacking back wrap, front wrap detached with some loss of paper, lower corner trimmed, previous owner's signature to front wrap, illustrated, in about good condition.Quite uncommon and fragile examples of the very first two issues of a children's magazine, published as a supplements to the "Khleb Nebesnyi" (Bread of Heaven) journal for the White emigre community in Harbin, China. Spiritual, cultural, and moral, the publications were printed at the Mother of God of Kazan Monastery in Harbin, which had its own publishing house. They came out monthly from 1929 until 1935, when the Manchukuo Manchuria (formed by the Japanese military administration in the occupied territories) banned their publication. For the next year, the journals came out at interminable intervals under various one-time names. They ceased to exist in 1944. OCLC lists one incomplete run at UC Berkeley Libraries with none others in the trade.