First edition in Russian of the first book by the Soviet Yiddish poet and novelist Peretz Markish (1895-1952), a collection of poems, Shveln (Threshold, Kiev, 1919) which established his reputation as one of the most important Yiddish poets of his time.

A supporter of Soviet Russia and the Russian Revolution of 1917, Markish was awarded the order of Lenin in 1939, but he was arrested in 1948, accused of Jewish nationalism, and in 1952 he was shot along with many of his fellow writers. His poetry was rehabilitated in the 1950s when collections of his poems were published in both Russian and Ukrainian translation. Anna Akhmatova was among those writers who later translated his poetry; the translators of the present collection are P. Antopolsky, E. Bagritsky, D. Brodsky, O. Kolychev, and L. Penkovsky.

Extremely rare: OCLC records a single copy, at the University of Haifa; not found in any of the bibliographies consulted.

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