Taras Bul'ba. Povest' (Taras Bulba. A Novel)

Moskva/Leningrad (Moscow/St. Petersburg): Gosudarstvennoe Izdatel'stvol'stvo Detskoi Literatury, 1946. Hardcover. First edition thus; 11 3/4 x 9; pp. 154; illustrated beige cloth over boards; a few spots to margins of boards; illustrated with full-page and in-line autolithographs by Evgenii Kibrik; very good condition.A beautiful and lavishly illustrated edition of Gogol's "Taras Bulba" - the romanticized historical novel of the journey of an old Cossack and his sons to joining in the war against Poland. Initially published in 1835, the story was dubbed "too Ukrainian," prompting the author to rewrite and greatly expand it and leading to a second edition, published in 1842 and featuring many more Russian nationalist themes. The original first edition would not be reprinted and made available in Ukraine until 2005. The illustrator, Evgenii Kibrik (1906 - 1978), was a Russian graphic artist, painter, and Professor at the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow. He was renowned for the psychological depth of his figures and for his mastery of various techniques, including autolithography, ink, and charcoal.