Two journals on architecture in the Soviet Union:

1. СА (Современная Архитектура) [Contemporary Architecture], a constructivist journal edited by Moisei Ginzburg and the brothers Leonid and Alexander Vesnin. Issue 4-5 of the second year, marking the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. Moscow: государственное издательство, [1927]. Russian. Cover designed by Aleksei Gan (Алексей Михайлович Ган [Имберх]; 1887-1942). Journal designed by El Lissitzky.

[1], 112-156, [2] pages. 34 cm. Good condition. Stains, including minor dampstains. Creases at corners of pages. Wear and blemishes to cover and spine.

2. Архитектура СССР / L'architecture de l'URSS / Architecture of the USSR / Architektur der UdSSR, monthly journal of the Union of Architects in the Soviet Union. Issue number 1. Moscow, 1933. Magazine title and subscription addresses in Russian, English, German and French. Cover designed by El Lissitzky.

39, [2] pages. 30 cm. Good condition. Stains, including minor dampstains. Pen inscription and stamp on inner rear cover. Wear and blemishes to cover.

El (Eliezer Lazar Markovich) Lissitzky (Ла́зарь Ма́ркович (Мо́рдухович) Лиси́цкий; 1890-1941), a Jewish-Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer and architect, one of the most prominent and important members of the Russian avant-garde.

Lissitzky, an architect by training, contributed much, together with his teacher and friend Kazimir Malevich, to the conceptualization and development of the Suprematism movement – the abstract art focused on geometric forms. He also designed numerous books and journals, exhibitions, and propaganda posters for the communist regime in Russia and influenced the Bauhaus and Constructivist movements in Europe.

In 1921, Lissitzky moved to Germany, where he served as the Russian cultural ambassador, engaged in forming connections between Russian and German artists and continued to design books and journals; there he also created some of his most well-known works in the field of book design, including the issues of the journal "Veshch/Gegenstand/Objet", which he founded together with the writer Ilya Ehrenburg, and a volume of poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Lissitzky died in Moscow at the age of 51. In his final years, his artistic work was dedicated mainly to soviet propaganda; yet it seems that the same worldview accompanied his works throughout his life – the belief in goal-oriented creation (Zielbewußte Schaffen, the German term he coined) and the power of art to influence and bring about change.