NEKRASOV VIKTOR (1911–1987) V okopakh Stalingrada ['In the Trenches of Stalingrad']. Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo khudozhestvennoy literatury, 1951.

278, [6] pp.: ill., 2 plates; 22.8 × 17.2 cm. Woodcuts by V. and Yu. Rostovtsev; binding and title-page design by N. Shishlovskiy. Publisher’s binding with gilt and colour stamping, with a paper onlay illustration on the upper cover. Excellent condition. Viktor Nekrasov (1911–1987) – writer, war front veteran, defender of Stalingrad. He volunteered for the front in 1941 and immediately after the war published the novella ‘V okopakh Stalingrada’. The work became one of the first truthful accounts of the Great Patriotic War: never before had the war been described with such simplicity and stark realism. Although it provoked strong official criticism, the book was awarded the Stalin Prize by decision of ‘the Father of Nations’.