8vo. Photographic frontispiece portrait of Stalin. Original gilt-lettered cloth (lettering a little dulled); slipcase.

 

STALIN'S COPY, SIGNED ON THE TITLE-PAGE AND WITH A COUPLE OF MARGINAL ANNOTATIONS in his hand in blue pencil. With his library stamp "J. V. Stalin" on title-page and lower margin of first page of the main text. Stalin was an avid reader, and at the time of his death, it is estimated his personal library ran to approximately 25,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals. Roughly 11,000 were classics of Russian and world literature by authors like Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Hugo and Shakespeare. The remainder were nonfiction titles in Marxism, history, economics and other fields. Lenin was by far the most represented author, at nearly 250 publications. Stalin had his own ex-libris stamp and classification system. The centerpiece of his Moscow residence was its library, although he preferred to store his collection off-site and have an assistant bring him reading material upon request.

According to Roberts, scholars have preserved about 400 volumes that contain Stalin’s pometki—markings, notes and marginalia. BOOKS FROM STALIN’S LIBRARY ARE RARE AT AUCTION, ESPECIALLY SO SIGNED BY HIM. See Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin’s Library: A Dictator and His Books, New Haven, 2022.