[MINIATURE SOVIET SAMIZDAT - EROTIC ART BRUT] Two hand-drawn illustrated miniature volumes, titled (in Latin script): "Reklama geroin sredstvo" [Advertising, heroin, remedy] AND "Seks kartini" [Sex paintings]

USSR: self-published, late 1980s. Hand-made miniature pamphlets measuring 36 × 22 mm and 38 × 24 mm respectively, made from lined notebook paper, one stapled and one hand sewn, with original drawings in ink and color crayon throughout; [16] and [20] pages. Very good.

Two one-of-a-kind miniature erotica zines, these tiny volumes reflect the cultural transformation of the late Soviet period, with the opening to Western culture sparked by Glasnost and Perestroika. The thumb-sized volumes are modeled on Western entertainment publications, with captions in "Runglish", Russian words written in Latin alphabet in a westernised manner. Western models are also clear from the mix of references to Western comic strips, pornography, advertising, and drug use in one of the works - all illegal in the USSR. The title "Advertising, heroin, cure" seems to be a tongue-in-cheek comment on Soviet depiction of Western culture as consumerist and deeply flawed, while the drawings also relish in its titillating qualities. The reference to heroin (as opposed to any other drug) in the title potentially links the production of the volumes to the Soviet-Afghan war, with heroin first brought into the Soviet Union from Afghanistan by Soviet veterans. This could also account for the format, their miniature size making them easy to hide for soldiers whose possessions were tightly controlled. The second volume, titled "Sex kartini" (Sex paintings) is inspired in equal parts by Playboy and by modernist painting. References to paintings such as Edvard Munch's "The Day After", pictured on p. 6, and Edouard Manet's "Olympia" (p. 16), as well as to the "nude by the window" motif common in expressionist painting, suggests that the artist was well versed in art history. The two volumes are likely unique and seem to have been made by the same artist judging by the style. The subtitle "Pasha's sex" to multiple images in one of the zines, suggests that they may have been made as a present to someone named Pasha, documenting his actual or imagined sexual exploits.

While sexually explicit and pornographic materials were censored and simply not allowed by Soviet censorship starting in the 1920s, the making, distribution, and possession of pornography was officially criminalized only in 1986. This new legal designation only encouraged illicit production of such materials. The Russian poet Lev Losev has identified six categories of samizdat: literary, political, religious-philosophical, mystical and occult, erotica, and instructions. The last three categories, have been left out of conversations about the Soviet underground publishing practices altogether because they do not fit neatly into the standard politicized narrative. These unique booklets, which reflect the social realities of the late Soviet period, are an excellent example of the great variety of genres in Soviet samizdat circulation. Pornographic material came into wide distribution in the post-Soviet countries after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

We have not encountered holdings of similar items in collections or in the trade.