Leonidze, G. Stalin: Childhood and Youth. Epic Poem. Book One (Stalin. Detstvo i otrochestvo), 1946. In Russian

Леонидзе, Георгий. Сталин. Детство и отрочество. Эпопея. Книга первая. / Пер. с груз. Н. Тихонова. Художник Н. В. Ильин.
Москва: Гослитиздат, 1946.
144 с., ил. Твёрдый издательский переплёт, энциклопедический формат.
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Leonidze, Georgy. Stalin: Childhood and Youth. Epic Poem. Book One (Stalin. Detstvo i otrochestvo). / Trans. from Georgian by N. Tikhonov. Illustrated by N. V. Ilyin.
Moscow: Goslitizdat, 1946.
144 pp., illustrated. Publisher’s hardcover, encyclopedic format.

This 1946 luxury edition represents a high point of the late-Stalinist cult of personality in literature, blending Georgian poetic tradition with Soviet monumentalism. Georgy Leonidze, one of Georgia's premier poets and a future academician, spent years researching the folk traditions and local history of Gori and Tbilisi to craft this "poetic epic."
The work focuses on the formative years of Joseph Stalin, depicting his upbringing in the humble surroundings of Gori. Leonidze’s verse, translated into Russian by the acclaimed poet Nikolai Tikhonov, elevates the biographical details into a mythic narrative, intertwining Stalin's youth with the rugged beauty of the Georgian landscape and the historical struggles of the Georgian peasantry.
The book’s aesthetic is defined by the work of Nikolai Ilyin, a master of Soviet book design. The encyclopedic format features classical typography and elegant headpieces that reflect the "Empire" style of the immediate post-war years. For historians, this 1946 publication is a fascinating example of how regional identity was integrated into the central state hagiography. It remains a rare and significant artifact for collectors of Staliniana, Soviet poetry, and the history of socialist realism in the 1940s.