Comprising of:
a) A desk lamp with a pencil holder on a flat base; an electrified brass desk lamp with two adjustable neck joints and twisted cord; 36 x 20.5 cm (14 x 8 in.). The pencil holder depicting scenes with pioneers admiring the bright light of science shining through the dark woods, Baba Yaga is shown working on a collective farm, and children gather around the evil spirits to explain the phenomenon of sound transmission; scarlet interior; 12 x 5.5 cm (5 x 2 1/4 in.). The rectangular papier-mache base richly decorated with a gold floral pattern on the border; the lower-right corner painted with an accumulation of the rising sun, an open book, a bunch of wheat, and a clarion in a seal-like manner; a dedication in Cyrillic reads To the directors of the creative team of artists of the Comrade Rykov Leningrad State Playing Cards Factory from the Praesidium of the Ivanovsk League of the Militant Atheists for Anti-Religious Works Among the People. Leningrad 1931; 15 x 23 cm (6 x 9 in.)

b) A rectangular box with cover, depicting two card game scenes on the longer sides: the Leshy desperately losing to a young scientist, and Baba Yaga defeated by a clever Budenovets; the two shorter sides and the top painted with miniature images of the anti-religious cards included in the present set; exterior lusciously decorated with gold detailing; scarlet interior; 7.5 x 11 cm (3 x 4 1/2 in.), signed on the cover N. Zinoviev lower left, inscribed and dated Palekh 1931 lower right

c) A deck of 53 anti-religious playing cards with a painted papier-mache holder; each suit represents a different religion; the card back features a design with Baba Yaga kidnapping a child; 9.5 x 6.5 cm (3 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.), a paper cover bears inscriptions in Cyrillic Anti-religious; 53 pieces - 1931; The highest grade; State card monopoly. The holder illustrates the scenes of the children training Baba Yaga to harvest with modern gear, and a pioneer boy teaching the Leshy how to use the printing press; the spine is painted with traditional Palekh gold ornament; scarlet interior; 9 x 7.5 cm (3 1/2 x 3 in.), one of the sides signed N. Zinoviev lower left, inscribed and dated Palekh 1931 lower right. Accompanied by an album with samples of products of the State Playing Card Factory of the Soviet Ministry of Finance of 1931

d) A paperweight on a raised rectangular base; depicting three young pioneers appealing to Baba Yaga and the Leshy to abandon the dark woods and enter the bright Communist life with its industrial progress, showing countless possibilities to expand one`s knowledge by presenting a school and a palace of culture; 12 x 16 cm (4 3/4 x 6 1/4 in.), signed N. Zinoviev lower left, inscribed and dated Palekh 1931 lower right

e) A tray with painted inside base; depicting a group of Soviet youths enlightening the evil spirits by teaching Baba Yaga, Leshy, and Chort grammar and literacy; a red standard in the upper right corner reads Doloy Temnotu I Otstalost (Down with Darkness and Backwardness), complemented by a red banner in the upper left corner proclaiming Mrakobesie I Suyeverie Na Svalku Istorii! (Obscurantism and Superstition to the Scrapyard of History); a view from the window presents a harvester in a field of golden wheat, symbolizing the advantage of collective work, with Soviet planes surfing in the air as a symbol of endless exploration; 16.5 x 25 cm (6 1/2 x 9 3/4 in.), signed N. Zinoviev lower left, inscribed and dated Palekh 1931 lower right.

LOT NOTES
This extremely rare and exclusive gift set was commissioned for Nikolai Zinoviev, one of the most prominent masters of Soviet Palekh lacquer miniature painting, by the members of the Vast League of Militant Atheists. The chiefs of the Comrade Rykov Leningrad State Playing Cards Factory were honored with the present desk set for executing a religiously irreverent playing card design during the peak period of Bolshevik anti-religious propaganda. Both, the cards and the papier-mache set, promote the idea that there are numerous benefits to common people leaving the folk beliefs in the past and opening their minds to the pure reason of science. The figures of Baba Yaga and the Leshy, presented as the leaders of evil spirits in Russian folk tales, represent the blind fiction of any religion. At the same time their main attribute, the playing cards, stand for the superstitious nature of the folkway and the constant attempt to explain the unknown by creating irrational connections. Each scene contains an image of a bright red sun or lamp with a symbolic red bulb  eloquently illustrating that Communist-led learning is the eye of mind. Nikolai Mikhailovich Zinoviev (1888-1979) was a teacher and a director of the Palekh Art School, awarded the title of The People`s Artist of the USSR, as well as the author of several books on art of Palekh. He is particularly well-known for featuring children in his lacquer miniature painting. The present set is an earlier version of Zinoviev`s famous plaque Pioneers` Trial on Baba Yaga and Evil Spirits from 1933 (see ref.: Soviet Agitational Lacquered Miniature from the Collection of Alexander Dobrovinsky, Iskusstvo-XXI Vek, Moscow, 2011) featuring the same allegorical plea for the rejection of illiteracy, superstition, and devoutness in the name of progress of the Soviet people.