Hugo, Victor. The Last Day of a Condemned Man. The Execution of Claude Gue (Posledniy den' smertnika. Kazn' Kloda Gye), 1931. In Russian

Гюго, Виктор. Последний день смертника. Казнь Клода Ге.
Ред. и предисл. А. К. Виноградова.
Москва-Ленинград: Художественная литература, 1931
151 стр. Мягкий издательский переплет, 18х11,5 см.
Тираж: 10000 экз.
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Hugo, Victor. Posledniy den' smertnika. Kazn' Kloda Gye. [The Last Day of a Condemned Man. The Execution of Claude Gue].
Edited and with a preface by A. K. Vinogradov.
Moscow-Leningrad: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, 1931.
151 pp. Softcover, 18x11.5 cm.
Print run: 10,000 copies.

This 1931 Soviet edition presents two of Victor Hugo's powerful narratives against the death penalty: the celebrated novella "The Last Day of a Condemned Man" and the documentary essay "The Execution of Claude Gue." Published by "Khudozhestvennaya Literatura," the volume was prepared with a preface by the noted Soviet literary scholar A. K. Vinogradov. Hugo's passionate humanist arguments against capital punishment and social injustice found a complex reception in the USSR, where they could be interpreted as a critique of bourgeois legal systems. This compact, mass-produced softcover edition, typical of early 1930s Soviet publishing, made Hugo's socially engaged prose accessible to a wide readership, reflecting the state's selective promotion of critical Western literature within its own ideological framework.