BULGAKOV M.A. (1891-1940) Rasskazy [Stories]. [Leningrad]: Zinoviev State Printing House, [1926].

58, [3] pp.: ill.; 15 x 11.5 cm. (Humorous Illustrated Library of the journal ‘Smekhach’; no. 15). Illustrations by N. Radlov. Fair condition. Wrapper missing. Rubbing, soiling, tears along the edges, first and last pages detached, ownership inscriptions on the title page. The collection includes the satirical sketches ‘Inflammation of the Brain’, ‘The Golden Dispatches of Ferapont Ferapontovich Kaportsev’, ‘The Flying Dutchman’, ‘A Lousy Type’, ‘The Water of Life’, ‘Gem-Studded Daily Life’, ‘A Square on Wheels’, ‘The Egyptian Mummy’ and others. During Mikhail Bulgakov’s lifetime three separate collections of his stories were published in the USSR: ‘Diaboliad’ (Nedra, 1925; reissued 1926), the collection in the ‘Humorous Illustrated Library of the journal Smekhach’ (1926) and ‘A Treatise on Housing’ (ZiF, 1926). In 1926 the OGPU searched Bulgakov’s home, confiscating his personal diary and the typescripts of ‘Heart of a Dog’. At the same time he began to be harshly criticised in the Soviet press. Despite the success of his plays, by 1930 his books were no longer printed and his plays had disappeared from the theatre repertoire. One of only three editions of the writer’s work published in the USSR during his lifetime.