Собрание сочинений

First collected edition. No deluxe paper copies issued.
Publisher’s binding in full green cloth, smooth spines, with their dust jackets designed by Adam Rusak, showing only minor and insignificant marginal tears.

Rare presentation copy dated May 1, 1992 and signed by Solzhenitsyn to USSR émigré journalist and writer Sam Yossman, on the title page of the first volume.

The first collected edition of Solzhenitsyn’s works was brought out by the émigré publishers Posev in West Germany at a time when the celebrated dissident could no longer publish at home: in 1969 he was expelled from the Writers’ Union of the USSR; and his receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature the following year did not improve his standing with the Soviet authorities.

The collected works iclude the writer’s masterpieces One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Cancer Ward, and The First Circle. These are complemented by plays, stories, articles, and a biographical sketch. The final volume documents what became known in the Soviet Union as the “Solzhenitsyn Affair,” and also includes a selection of critical essays on the author’s work.

A Jewish émigré journalist and writer, Yossman worked for 20 years with the BBC Russian Service under the name Sam Jones. Following Solzhenitsyn’s example, he published his own memoirs titled Šaltojo karo samdinys (Mercenary of the Cold War), recounting his childhood marked by poverty and conflict in postwar Vilnius. He is known for introducing Soviet audiences to Western music and culture and notably hosted Paul McCartney in January 1989 on his rock music program "Babushkin Sunduk" ("Grandmother’s Hope Chest"), "still remembered by millions in the former USSR" (Lithuanian Jewish Community). Yossman is also regarded as the father of the “Russian song,” a popular musical genre developed by émigrés from the Soviet Union in the United States, which he popularised through his radio programme.