Sholokhov, M. Virgin Soil Upturned: Book One (Gatekhili Q'amiri / Podnyataya Tselina) / translated by A. Chumbadze, 1934. In Georgian.

შოლოხოვი, მიხეილ (1905-1984). გატეხილი ყამირი : რომანი / თარგმანი არისტო ჭუმბაძის.
ტფილისი : სახელგამი, 1934 [ყდაზე თარიღი 1935]. 428 გვერდი ; 21 სანტიმეტრი.
მაგარი ყდა. ტირაჟი 3 000 ც.
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Sholokhov, Mikhail (1905-1984). Virgin Soil Upturned: Book One / translated by Aristo Chumbadze. First Georgian edition.
Tbilisi: "Sakhelgami" (State Publishing House), 1934 [cover dated 1935]. 428 pp. ; 21 cm.
Hardcover, publisher's cloth. Print run of 3,000 copies.
Binding good: small stain to upper corner of front board, corners lightly rubbed. Text block good: front board, front free endpaper, and title page each bear the same previous owner's ink signature in red.

A scarce early Georgian-language edition of Mikhail Sholokhov's "Virgin Soil Upturned" (Podnyataya Tselina), one of the canonical texts of Socialist Realism, chronicling the forced collectivization of a Don Cossack village in 1930. First published in Russian in 1932, the novel was rushed into Georgian translation within two years, reflecting Soviet cultural policy of disseminating officially sanctioned literature across the union republics in national languages. The translator, Aristo Chumbadze (1880-1971), was a Georgian writer and journalist educated at the Sorbonne who had earlier led an unusually cosmopolitan career, including diplomatic postings in Japan and Algeria and representing Georgia in Stockholm and Ankara before turning to literary and journalistic work in Soviet Tbilisi. This edition translates only "Book One" of the novel (the text ends with the printed notice "End of Book One"); Sholokhov did not complete a second book until 1959, after the manuscript of his original continuation was lost during the Second World War.