KRAVCHENKO, Victor. I Chose Freedom: The Personal and Political Life of a Soviet Official. London: Robert Hale. 1947. 8vo. First British edition. Rebound in attractive craft binding, half-leather over black cloth boards with gilt titles and Soviet star motif to front board and spine panel, in a custom black slipcase. The leather a trifle lumpy around crown, but the binding tight and square, light spots to textblock edges, the contents generally fine. The slipcase red-lined and structurally sound.
The Soviet defector’s most important work. Kravchenko joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1929, showing enthusiasm and promise. Through work in steel mills, he witnessed first-hand Stalin’s collectivisation and his purges, while associates of his were sent to the gulag, Kravchenko himself narrowly escaping that fate. In the final years of the Second World War, he served in the Soviet Army posted to Washington D. C., and soon after defected, claiming asylum in the US. His anti-Stalinist stance therein was co-opted by the Information Research Department—Britain’s secret propagandist arm—and he consequently became a best-seller in the US and in Europe. Deemed a traitor in his homeland, he was like many others hassled by the KGB before his apparent suicide in his Manhattan apartment in 1966. A unique copy in craft binding.
KRAVCHENKO, Victor. I Chose Freedom: The Personal and Political Life of a Soviet Official. London: Robert Hale. 1947. 8vo. First British edition. Rebound in attractive craft binding, half-leather over black cloth boards with gilt titles and Soviet star motif to front board and spine panel, in a custom black slipcase. The leather a trifle lumpy around crown, but the binding tight and square, light spots to textblock edges, the contents generally fine. The slipcase red-lined and structurally sound.
The Soviet defector’s most important work. Kravchenko joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1929, showing enthusiasm and promise. Through work in steel mills, he witnessed first-hand Stalin’s collectivisation and his purges, while associates of his were sent to the gulag, Kravchenko himself narrowly escaping that fate. In the final years of the Second World War, he served in the Soviet Army posted to Washington D. C., and soon after defected, claiming asylum in the US. His anti-Stalinist stance therein was co-opted by the Information Research Department—Britain’s secret propagandist arm—and he consequently became a best-seller in the US and in Europe. Deemed a traitor in his homeland, he was like many others hassled by the KGB before his apparent suicide in his Manhattan apartment in 1966. A unique copy in craft binding.
