Raboche-Krest'ianskaia Krasnaia Armiia

1934. LISSITZKY, El. Raboche-Krest'ianskaia Krasnaia Armiia [Red Army of Workers and Peasants]. Edited by F.E. Rodionov. Unpaginated, illustrated throughout with photomontages including a large four page fold-out montage by El Lissitzky. Oblong folio, 300 x 350 mm., bound in publisher's black cloth with a blind stamped tank on the front cover, and publisher's constructivist folder with a flap, which serves as a stand, in a new cloth folding box. Moscow: Ogiz-Izogiz, 1934. First edition, uncensored and complete. One of the rarer and most striking Soviet propaganda books. Layout and photomontages by El Lissitzky illustrate a May Day parade in Red Square demonstrating the might of the Red Army. "His [Lissitzky's] photographic layout is as lively as one might expect from one so well versed in Constructivist angles and the complex layering's of the photomontage. The book's coup de théâtre comes at the beginning, with a fold-out coloured montage that features Stalin, the red star and the troops in one of Lissitsky's most bravura pieces of propaganda collage." (Parr, The Photobook, pg 171) Rarely found complete as it became the subject of censorship following a series of purges that resulted in the execution of several of the officers depicted in the book. Minor restoration to the head of spine, but overall an exceptional copy. Karasik and Heiting, The Soviet Photobook 1920-1940, p. 306-313. Parr, The Photobook I, pg 170-171. Rowell & Wye, The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1044.