Si Les Soviets Gagnaient La Guerre! Katyn Partout (If The Soviets Won The War! Katyn Everywhere)
[Paris]: Bureau Central de Presse, [ca. 1943]. First edition. Softcover. Small folio. 12 x 10 1/2". Unpaginated. 48 double-sided leaves (approx. 100 pages). Illustrated lithographic cover with photo-montage and text in black and yellow.
A French right-wing collaborationist and anti-Communist publication issued during the Nazi-occupation. This massive publication was quite lavishly produced for a piece of propaganda, and is profusely illustrated throughout with hundreds of striking images (some full-page) including b/w and cyan tinted photogravure, as well as drawings, photo collage, photo-montage, reproductions of original documents and artwork and political caricatures. Also included are a few charts and statistical tables.
The text is divided into more than 20 different sections (or articles) written by a large number of prominent French collaborationist and right-wing political figures, journalists and writers of the period. These include Maurice-Ivan Sicard (1910-2000, also the director/ editor), Maurice Laporte (1901-1987), Émile Bougère (1903-1964), Lt. Colonel Paul Gamory-Dubourdeau (1889-1963), Jacques Ploncard d'Assac (1910-2005), Armand Bernardini (1895-1972), artist and cartoonist Ralph Soupault (1904-1962), Cardinal Alfred Baudrillart (1859-1942) and others. Many contributors to this publication were involved in the infamous right-wing and anti-Semitic periodical Le Cahier Jaune (1941-1943), published by André Chaumet. The content throughout include tirades against the Soviets, International Communism, Jews, and many other entities. Numerous specific figures of the Soviet State are singled for direct attack. There are constant praises for the Nazis, Fascism, and the Franco regime, as well as discussions of the Russian Revolution and the Spanish Civil War, among other related topics. Notable sections include a detailed analysis of prominent Jewish communists and Jewish Soviet figures (including photo portraits), and an analysis of so-called "Bolshevik Art", which in a similar way to the Nazi concept of "Degenerate art", labels works of the modern art and the 20th century avant-garde, as being instruments of International Communism, and the plots of nefarious Jewish art dealers to steal patrons' money. Shown are photogravure reporductions of works by Picasso, Leger and others (no credits).
The text of the title refers to the infamous Katyn Massacre (1940) in which more than 20,000 members of the Polish military and intelligentsia where executed by the soviet NKVD, under the orders of Stalin. The dead were then buried in mass graves in the Katyn forest, and later uncovered by the Nazis in 1943. News of the discovery was effectively used by the Germans as anti-Soviet propaganda in publications such as this, warning against the dangers of Bolshevism. The final section of this publication addresses the massacre specifically, and includes images of the mass graves.
The back cover is a striking photographic image showing crosses in silhouette accompanied by a quote from French poet and essayist Charles Peguy. The interior front cover contains a full-page visual diagram showing the organization of the International Communist party inside France.
Text throughout in French.
Wrappers with some light rubbing, creasing and chipping to extremities. Small residue from tape along the spine. Wrappers overall quite clean and vibrant. Save for the most minor age toning to the edges of the pages, the interior is clean and vibrant throughout. Wrappers in very good-, inteiror in near fine condition overall. Quite scarce. Protected in modern mylar. vg- to near fine. Item #53656
Price: $2,500.00