Time, Events, People: Chronicle of forty glorious years 1917-1957

Time, Events, People: Chronicle of Forty Glorious Years 1917–1957 is an English-language book published in Moscow in 1957. The National Library of Australia catalogues it as a book in English, dates it to 1957, and assigns the subject “Soviet Union—History—1917–” (National Library of Australia catalogue). Vanderbilt University Libraries records the publisher as the Foreign Languages Publishing House and classifies the volume as a pictorial work on Soviet history (Vanderbilt University Libraries).

Credits and edition identity

The institutional records establish a more precise set of responsibilities than a simplified author line. Vanderbilt’s title transcription credits B. Agapov, N. Vladimirsky, and V. Zakharchenko as editors; V. Zakharchenko and I. Peshkin for the text; and D. Skvirsky as translator from Russian. Its creator field identifies I. P. Abramskii as compiler, with B. N. Agapov and Vasilii Zakharchenko listed as contributors (Vanderbilt University Libraries).

These records support the 1957 Moscow issue, but they do not identify it as a first edition. That designation is therefore not used here. For catalogue comparison, Vanderbilt supplies Library of Congress control number 59040266 and OCLC number 05087285 (Vanderbilt University Libraries).

A pictorial historical object

Vanderbilt describes the book as one unpaginated volume, chiefly illustrated, with some colour and mounted illustrations, portraits, and folding colour maps; the recorded height is 34 cm. Its subject heading, “Soviet Union—History—Pictorial works,” is useful because it identifies the volume’s visual character without requiring unsupported claims about a particular page sequence or image (Vanderbilt University Libraries).

The title itself frames the period 1917–1957 as “forty glorious years.” Read alongside the library classification, that wording makes clear that this is not merely a neutral picture archive: it presents a celebratory historical frame. The physical variety recorded by Vanderbilt—ordinary illustrations, mounted material, portraits, and folding maps—also shows that the book’s historical account is carried through several visual forms rather than text alone.

Collector’s notes

The strongest edition markers supported by the opened library records are the English title, the Moscow imprint of the Foreign Languages Publishing House, the 1957 date, and the translation credit to D. Skvirsky. The format statement is equally important: because the volume is unpaginated, a precise page total should not be asserted from these records. A copy should instead be checked for its mounted illustrations and folding colour maps, the special components expressly documented in Vanderbilt’s catalogue entry.

The library evidence does not support previously repeated claims for a first-edition designation, a specific designer or technical editor, an exact page count, poster reproductions, photomontage, or a judgment about Stalin’s frequency of appearance. Those claims are omitted rather than carried over from non-institutional descriptions.

Sources

• National Library of Australia catalogue record search
• Vanderbilt University Libraries full catalogue record