Torgsin; State Corporation for Trade With Foreigners

Moscow: Torgsin, 1935. Small folded tear to one edge, very good indeed. Folding broadsheet, single leaf, approx. 16 X 12 inches, folded to make narrow multi-panel leaflet. Menu/catalogue of goods available through Torgsin, the state-sponsored store that made unobtainable goods available to Soviet citizens with foreign currency. Alternatively, as promoted with this document, friends or relatives in the West could place orders through a U.S. agent - identified here on the front panel as "Irving Spero. . . Los Angeles" -- which would then be picked at up a local Torgsin stores in the USSR. Items on the priced list range from various staple food products, to textiles, shoes and other clothing, household utensils, soaps, perfumes, and miscellaneous items including radios, accordions, bicycles, slide rules, samovars, and electric percolators. With a list of cities in the USSR with Torgsin stores, a description and explanation of the service, and a colorful map of the USSR. The Torgsin program lasted only from 1931 to 1936 and was mostly accessible only to political elites and the well-connected, its well-stocked stores standing as taunts to impoverished people suffering famine. A Torgsin store in Moscow was the scene of a piece of manic literary slapstick by Mikahil Bulgakov in his classic novel The Master and Margarita.