First edition, a collection of three stories.

The title story is set during the final year of Lermontov’s life, its name referring to the card game ‘shtoss’, also the title of a story left unfinished by Lermontov. The other two stories in the volume are ‘Gorod vetrov’ [‘Town of winds’], dedicated to Pasternak, and ‘Zemlia na rukakh’ [‘Earth in your hands’].

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LEBEDEV, V.P.

175 godovshchina Pervago Kadetskago korpusa. 17 fevralia 1907 g. [175th Anniversary of the First Corps of Cadets, 17 February 1907].

Only edition of this collection of poems commemorating the 175th anniversary of the First Corps of Cadets, set up under Anna Ivanovna. Each of the ten ‘scenes in verse’ is narrated by a cadet, once for each Tsar under which the Corps has served.

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KUSIKOV, Aleksandr Borisovich, pseud. [Boris KUSIKIAN].

Koevangelieran [Ko-gospel-ran].

First edition. It is difficult to piece together a cohesive picture of Aleksandr Kusikov. His romanticized self-image was one of a wild mountain-dweller, and the Circassian trappings with which he surrounded himself (he was born in 1896 in Armavir to a large Armenian family called Kusikian) were clearly evident in his poetry, his letters, and his style of dress. This collection of verse was written when Kusikov was working with Shershenevich and Esenin, a prolific time for the young poet. Only a few years later his verse style changed, the once graphic clarity faded, the Eastern flavour soured and dried up. By the beginning of the ’30s he had broken with literature altogether; he died in Paris in 1977.

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