First Book of Soviet Yiddish Writers Hard to Find in Moscow

Only one book store in Moscow, on Kirov street, received copies of the Yiddish book “This Is How We Live,” published last month in Moscow, according to a report in the New York Times today from its Moscow correspondent. The report said that the entire shipment of 86 copies was sold out by the store almost immediately on the basis of advanced orders. There are 250,000 Jews in Moscow, and the publication of the book has not been reported in the Russian language press, the correspondent emphasized.

The Soviet press agency Novosti, in a cable to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, said that the book was published in 15,000 copies and that 9,300 of them have been shipped to book stores in various parts of the USSR. The book is the first volume of works by Yiddish authors in the Soviet Union published since the liquidation of Jewish culture by Stalin. It is believed that a substantial part of the edition is destined for export, since the book is also scheduled to appear in English and French editions. It is devoted primarily to show how Jews live in the Soviet Union.

The Novosti report said that, of the 15,000 copies printed, 5,000 had been shipped to book shops in the Russian Federation of Soviet Republics, 3,000 to the Ukraine, more than 1,000 to Leningrad, and 300 to Minsk in Byelorussia. It admitted that the books in the Kirov store in Moscow were sold out “in one hour.”