Khudozhestvennaia vystavka XX let RKKA i Voenno-Morskogo Flota : Katalog (Art Exhibition 20 Years of Red Army and Red Navy : Catalogue)

Near fine condition; hard fabric publisher's cover shows rubbing on the corners, slight soiling and couple of small stains, damaged upper end of the spine; internally two tears on the rear endsheet, small and slight stain along upper edge of first few pages not affecting text. 

The large-scale art exhibition dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Soviet Armed Forces - Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and the Red Military-Naval Fleet was opened on 5 May 1938 at the premises of the Museum of the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow. Total number of artworks (painting, sculpture, graphics) on display exeeded 400. The thematic content covered Russian Civil War, October Socialist Revolution, political leaders and Army's commanders, Army in a period of peaceful construction, everyday life of the Army men. Among 270 participants were such important Soviet artists as Fyodor Bogorodsky, Aleksandr Deyneka, the Kukryniksy, Vasily Svarog, Konstantin Yuon, Mikhail Avilov, Isaak Brodsky, Piotr Buchkin, Rudolf Frentz, Arcady Rylov, Nikolai Samokish, Vladimir Serov, Konstantin Bogaevsky, Vasily Karev and many others. Current exhibition is one of the greatest and brightest examples of the Socialist realism and Soviet propaganda of the Stalin's era.

On June 10, 1938 an exhibition branch was also opened in the halls of the Central House of Officers of the Soviet Army. On January 6, 1939 the exhibition in Moscow was closed and transported to Leningrad, where it was opened on February 21, 1939 in the halls of the State Russian Museum. 

Present exhibition catalog edited by the chief political editor of the Military Publishing House (Voenizdat) of the USSR battalion commissar Murashev was published to accompany the main exposition displayed in Moscow (opened on 5 May 1938). It includes text of the Order of the People's Commissar of Defense no. 49 from 23 February 1939, article introducing aims of the exhibition, full list of exhibits with brief information about artists and artworks, at the end attached 62 full-page artworks reproductions plus one at the beginning serving as a chapter opener.