Exceptionally scarce ukrainian photomontage. An incredible albeit tragic work designed by Lev Pereshkol'nik dedicated to Pavel Postyshev, a top Soviet official who acted as Stalin's direct emissary in Ukraine during Holodomor. During 1932–3 Postyshev was given unprecedented powers to eliminate all opposition to collectivisation and to crush the Communists who defended Ukrainisation. The book is evidence of the cruelty with which the policies were enforced, encouraging children to act as vigilantes by attacking their peers. At a time when Stalin was everything, it is unusual for a publication to be glorifying a different Soviet figure and Postyshev certainly wanted to develop his own cult of personality. Although the title declares him 'the best friend of the pioneers and children', he gained a reputation for being 'the hangman of Ukraine' and in 2010 a court in Kyiv found him posthumously guilty for complicity in genocide.

Lev Pereshkolnik (1902-1976), a Kharkiv-born and based artist, is better known for his posters, including the works depicting Kharkiv's economy in the 1st and 2nd 5-year plans. In this edition the artists included 7 full-scale photomontages (one featuring a korovai bread with the baked 'to the best shock-worker – Stalin' on it), alongside photographs and caricaturesque drawings, depicting the children's kolkhoz life. Together with the unusual binding, bold usage of blank space and margins, striking layouts, the book is a masterful example of photomontage design.

WorldCat locates just one copy, at McGill University.

First and only edition, 4to (30.1 x 22.2); [28]pp., photomontage illustrations throughout; in the original photomontage boards with a cut-out design, spine and edges a little scuffed, slight scratch to top of lower board and small loss of paper, staples a little rusted otherwise a very good copy.

Not in Karasik.