[First Zulu Folktales in Russian. Ushin Brothers Design] Snegirev, I. L. Zulu Tales (Skazki Zulu). First Edition, 1937. In Russian.

Сказки Зулу / вступ. статья, пер. и примеч. И. Л. Снегирева; ил. Н. А. Ушина; переплет, титул, инициалы и форзац А. А. Ушина. М.; Л.: Издательство Академии наук СССР, 1937. [3], 246, [2] с.: ил., 10 л. цв. ил. (Институт языка и мышления им. Н. Я. Марра. Языки и литература Африки, I). Первое издание. Тираж 10 225 экз. Первая публикация образцов африканского фольклора на русском языке, переведенных непосредственно с языка зулу. Издательский красный коленкоровый переплет с черным силуэтным фризом (охотники и стадо) и золотым тиснением на крышке и корешке, работы А. А. Ушина. Форзацы и инициалы по рисункам А. А. Ушина. 
В очень хорошем состоянии.
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Zulu Tales / introductory article, translation and notes by I. L. Snegirev; illustrations by N. A. Ushin; binding, title page, initials and endpapers by A. A. Ushin. Moscow; Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1937. [3], 246, [2] pp.: illustrated, with 10 colour plates. (Marr Institute of Language and Thought. Languages and Literature of Africa, I). First edition. Print run 10,225 copies. The first publication of African folklore in Russian, translated directly from the Zulu language. Publisher's red cloth binding with a black silhouette frieze of hunters and cattle and gilt stamping on the front board and spine, designed by A. A. Ushin. Endpapers and initials after designs by A. A. Ushin. 
In very good condition.

This is the first Russian-language collection of Zulu folktales translated directly from the Zulu original, and the opening volume of the series Languages and Literature of Africa issued by the Marr Institute of Language and Thought. The editor-in-chief was the Orientalist Academician V. V. Struve. The translator, I. L. Snegirev, supplies a long introductory study of the Zulu and their oral tradition, a translator's note, and commentary on the tales. The book is dedicated to Albert Thomas Nzula, the first black General Secretary of the Communist Party of South Africa, who died in Moscow in 1934. This links the volume to the Comintern-era Soviet interest in Africa. The design is the work of two brothers. Nikolai Ushin (1898-1942), famed for his eight-volume Thousand and One Nights for Academia, which won a gold medal at the 1937 Paris Exposition, contributed ten colour plates, each signed with a monogram and dated 1936, along with gold-toned vignettes. Aleksei Ushin (1903-1942), who designed more than five hundred books, created the red cloth binding with its black silhouette frieze of hunters and cattle, the title page, the initials and the patterned endpapers. The print run was 10,225 copies, yet the book became a bibliographic rarity soon after publication. Copies with the original binding and intact plates are now scarce. It is of interest to collectors of Soviet book design of the 1930s, to Africanists, folklorists, and to libraries building collections on the history of African studies.