17 - ARAGON (Louis).

ARAGON (Louis). THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WAR PREPARATIONS [The Catholic Church and War Preparations]. MOKBA [Moscow]: STATE ANTI-RELIGIOUS PUBLISHING HOUSE, 1932. — Pamphlet, in-16 format, 174 x 127: 31 pp., printed cover. Paperback. First Russian edition of this extremely rare anticlerical pamphlet by Aragon, published in Moscow in 1932—the year of his break with André Breton and his more decisive commitment to the Communist Party. “The Roman Catholic Church was regarded as a reactionary organization, doomed to failure and lacking any legitimacy in the new society. Louis Aragon […] accused the Roman Church of promoting war and paving the way for military intervention, believing that this was precisely the Church’s mission at that time” (according to a study cited on Dissercat, an electronic thesis library). The pamphlet was published by the State Anti-Religious Publishing House (GAIZ), an organ of the Union of Militant Atheists [Союз воинствующих безбожников], in the very year of its founding: the publisher, which specialized in doctrinal antireligious literature, readily translated militant texts by foreign communist writers—and Aragon’s pamphlet fits perfectly into this strategy. A precious copy enhanced by a beautiful autograph dedication signed by Aragon on the title page: My dear comrade, we // would be very happy to see you // here—me, for example—so that // you can see for yourself that I’ve gone // through ten thousand steps here to // send you material, and that it’s // for lack of anything better that I’m sending you // this Mallarméan prose // Aragon The recipient of this letter has not been identified. Very well-preserved copy.