The Adler Collection of Soviet Children's Books

For years, a battered, brown leather suitcase sat in a loft. It contained a treasure trove: more than 250 children’s books from the Soviet Union, most in Russian, but with some in Ukrainian and even a few in Yiddish, almost all published between 1930 and 1933. The collection reveals aspects of the early USSR after the October Revolution and the central role of children’s literature in Soviet culture. Among the stories designed to educate new young citizens are rare editions by Vladimir Lebedev, Vera Ermolaeva, and Aleksandr Dejneka, as well as a remarkable group of Ukrainian books, until now considered as undiscovered areas for even the most dedicated researchers.