Urss

1928 — Very Good Russian Original dark green cloth bdg. Oblong folio. (28 x 36 cm). Eight languages of the title on the colophon, the text is completely Russian. [6], [ii], 108 p., [36] maps in various sizes, some of folded: (62x47 cm, 52,5x45,5 cm, 49,5x27 cm [x3], 61x47 cm; other maps are 36x28 cm). Four unnumbered leaves with half-title and contents for each section. Two small millimetric cuttings on two text pages. Ex-owner's name is on the title page. Markings on the index. Otherwise a very good and clean copy. Rare complete and the first atlas including a fine collection of 36 attractive chromo-lithograph maps mostly with tissue papers of the Soviet Union, edited by the Central Executive Committee and Enukidze (1877-1937), who was a prominent Georgian "Old Bolshevik". One of 11000 copies. Being published only 10 years after the USSR was established, this is the earliest atlas of the country. It seems to have been published with a wider audience in mind, with a title page in various European languages. The borders of many areas -including not just administrative regions throughout the USSR, but also entire autonomous republics (especially in Central Asia)- were in a state of flux; as such, the borders in this Atlas (including the wax-paper overlays meant to update various maps with changes made between when they were drawn and when the Atlas was published) often don't look anything like the borders they were set at the end of the Soviet Union and have continued on to modern times. Since the boundaries were often ideologically- (sometimes ethnically-, less so economically-) motivated, this offers an interesting insight into the mindset of the administration that was making these changes. Map list: World map, General USSR, USSR in Europe, Asia and USSR, Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Komi-Zyryan Autonomous Oblast, Avt, Votskaya Oblast, Maryinskaya, Cherepovetsky District, Vologda Oblast, Avt. Chuvashskaya SSR (Chuvashia), Avt. Tatarskaya SSR (Tatarstan), Avt. Bashkirskaya SSR (Bashkiria), ASSR Nemchev Povoljiya, Kalmykia (Kalmykia), Krimskaya SSR (Crimea), Adigeiskaya (Tscherkeskaya) Obl. (Cherkesia), Kabardino-Balkarskaya Avt. Obl. (Kabardino-Balkarian Rep.), Karachayskaya Avt. Obl. & Tscherkesskiy Nation. Okrug (Karachay-Cherkessia), Chechenskaya Avt. Obl. (Chechnya), Ingushetiya, Severo-Osetiya, Avt. Daghestanskaya SSR, Avt. Kazakskaya SSR, Kyrgyzkaya ASSR, Avt. Oiuratskaya Oblast, Burito - Mongolskaya SSR (Kazakhstan), Avt. Yakustkaya SSR (Yakutia), Beloruskaya SSR (Belarus), Ukrainskaya, SSR (Ukraine), Moldavskaya SSR (Moldovia), Zakavkazkaya SSR (Abkhazia), Azerbaijanskaya SSR (Azerbaijan), Arminskaya SSR (Armenia), SSR Gruzii (Georgia), Central Asian SSR (Karakalpakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. OCLC shows copies in twenty-three libraries worldwide: 7852120, 968755133, and 822577467.