Sale 265

Autographs and Historical Documents


Other Prominent Russians
 
 
Lot Photo Description
Lot 113
  Gromyko, Andrei (1909-89)., Soviet Union Statesmen; Foreign Minister (1957-1985), President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1985-1988).

DS, 6" x 6¼", 1891 September 1. "…I deliver re-casted project of the answering note to the State Department of the U.S.A. about adjusting the lend-lease accounts…coordinated with com(rade) Molotov…", boldly signed "A Gromyko" in blue pencil. File holes in left margin, Fine.
Estimate 200 - 300

According to an obituary in "Time" Magazine
"…when anyone referred imprecisely to events he had witnessed, Gromyko had an untoppable rejoinder: 'I know. I was there.'".
View details
Lot 114
  Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich (1870-1924)., Russian statesman, founder and 1st premier of the Soviet Union (1917-1924), head of the Soviet Communist Party (1923-1924).

ANS signed, 9" x 7", 1 proof., London, 1921 July. Telegram in Russian sent from Klyshko to Chicherin in Moscow advising him of the imminent departure of the English Trade Delegation for Moscow and apprising him of their needs, in part "a passenger train for fifteen people two goods wagons one flat wagon for an automobile…reminds about disinfected telephones installed…" in the top margin Lenin, in blue pencil, has added (to) "Krasin", in the bottom margin "Keep your eyes open. Check it and make sure everything is really done. Lenin".
On very fragile rice paper with average wear, small edge tears and some soiling.
Estimate 12,000 - 15,000

Accompanied by a 1987 Russian newspaper article about how Russian playwright Yuri Limanov discovered this telegram among family belongings. It seems his father had been deputy head of administration for the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade. Krasin had instructed him to follow up on preparations for the arrival of the English Trade Mission and as documentation, had given him the telegram.

View details
Lot 115
  Pasternak, Boris (1890-1960)., Russian writer and poet.

ALS in Russian, 1p, 5½" x 8½", 1946 Aug 9. Boldly written in purple ink. Pasternak thanks Alexander Terentyevich for book he sent to his son. Fine.
Estimate 500 - 750

Pasternak's only novel,
Dr. Zhivago, was banned in the Soviet Union because of its dim view of the Russian Revolution.
View details
Lot 116
  Stalin, Joseph [née Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili] (1879-1953)., Soviet Leader & dictator (1929-1953).

AES, 5¼" x 7¾", 1935 May 14. At the bottom of this playful note in blue pencil from his daughter Svetlana or, "Setanka" as he called her: "Order N 13 …I order you to allow me to go to ZYBALOV- SETANKA/OWNER/PROPRIETRESS", Stalin approves the "order" signing at the bottom in the same blue pencil "Agreed, I Stalin". Roughly torn from a writing pad resulting in top left corner missing, Very Good.
Estimate 4,000 - 6,000

A wonderfully intriguing piece in which Stalin reveals a tenderness and lightheartedness one rarely associates with the person responsible for the exorbitant criminalities of the gulags. Born on February 26 1926, Svetlana was Stalin's youngest child and only daughter: apparently very close, the two began to fall out when Svetlana, aged 16, fell in love with Alexei Kapler, a Jewish filmmaker. Stalin was so vehemently opposed to the romance that he sentenced Kapler to ten years in a Siberian labor camp, where he died. Svetlana provoked an international storm in 1967 when she defected to the US. So high profile was the defection that the Soviet Union demanded and obtained from the U.S. an assurance that any future Soviet defectors would be debriefed by Soviet officials before being granted asylum.

View details
Lot 117
  Zhukov, Georgi (1896-1974)., Marshall of the Soviet Union; organized defenses at Leningrad; stopped Hitler at the gates of Moscow; commanded Russian forces during the capture of Berlin; Soviet defense minister (1955-1957).

DS in Russian with English translation, 7¾" x 8½", 1940 September 18. To the Kiev Special Military District regarding personnel. File holes in left margin, Fine.
Estimate 300 - 400
View details