TOLSTOY, Leo. O wojnie. [Krakow:] Nakladem administracyi "Naprzodu". [1905].
Small square 4to. Original lithographic wrappers in red and black; pp. 37, [3]; light traces of humidity to lower margin of front cover and small portion at rear; internally, apart from scattered very light spotting, a very good copy in the stunningly designed wrappers by Kazimierz Sichulski; light marginal spotting to wrapper, small collector's inscription, dated 1905, in lilac ink to title-page.
First Polish edition, published by the PPS organ Naprzod. Tolstoy's Bethink Yourselves, as it became known via Chertkov's immediate translation into English, had been triggered by the Russo-Japanese War and was translated into many languages. Here it appears as On War. It is a sincere cry against war and the calamities it brings upon humanity. 'Again war. Again sufferings, necessary to nobody, utterly uncalled for; again fraud; again the universal stupefaction and brutalization of men … Something is taking place incomprehensible and impossible in its cruelty, falsehood, and stupidity' (from the beginning of the text).
Sichulski was a Lviv artist, who, before the First World War, contributed to the satirical magazine Liberum Veto, and was a member of a cabaret troupe in Krakow. At this time, his style of watercolours is sometimes resembling that of Egon Schiele.
Kozlowski, Proletariacka Mloda Polska, illustration 211; not in COPAC or OCLC.
#2088046