Signé; Joseph Kessel - Mémoires d'un commissaire du peuple [1/130 édition originale] - 1925

Original edition published in the form of the original manuscript, reproduced by photocopy by Daniel Jacomet for Edouard Champion in 1925. Limited print run of 130 copies, all numbered and signed by hand by Joseph Kessel (1898-1979). This one is No. 24.

On sheets, under a cover made of printed paper with the handwritten title. Cardboard case with the handwritten title on the front and the back. In good condition despite the worn and damaged case. The paper is normally yellowed from aging. A fine copy.

This is the diary of Fedia, a Russian exile in Paris, during 1914-1915.

The narrator, who frequents revolutionary circles, vividly comments on the war between capitalist countries, his worries for comrades who 'are going to get shot at defending the interests of Krupp, Le Creusot, Poutiloff,' his joy upon receiving Lenin's circular, which advises against engagement... He expresses fear that the war might end prematurely, hopes that the Cossacks perish in Prussia, and shares the common dismay among many exiles, including 'Trotsky himself'... A dull letter from his father triggers memories of a sordid childhood by the Ural; he was saved by a deportee who provided his intellectual and political education... He talks about Lenin's secret instructions, his own efforts to educate French workers, acts of sabotage, rumors of espionage, news from the front and abroad... Finally, the plan to stage a Russian spectacle sparks a drama among the exiles: a betrayal, an arrest, suspicions, a terrible certainty, a summary execution...

Kessel Joseph (1898-1979)
Memoirs of a People's Commissar
Edouard Champion, Paris 1925
in-8 (12 x 19 cm), 22 pages