Topuria, Akaki. Critical Articles (Kriti'k'uli ts'erilebi). Staliniri, 1956. In Georgian.

თოფურია, აკაკი (სარდიონის ძე). კრიტიკული წერილები.
სტალინირი : სამხრეთ ოსეთის სახელმწიფო გამომცემლობა, 1956. 120 გვერდი ; 18 სმ.
ნახევარ-მაგარი ყდა (ქაღალდით გარეკანი, ქსოვილის ზურგი). ტირაჟი 2 000 ც.
ყდა - კარგი: წინა ყდა მსუბუქი ლაქებით; უკანა ყდაზე მნიშვნელოვანი წრიული სველი ლაქა ცენტრში; ზურგი მთლიანი. ბლოკი - ძალიან კარგი: ფურცლები სუფთა, ტექსტი სრული.
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Topuria, Akaki. Critical Articles / editor M. V. Nartikoyev ; cover design by S. V. Dzeranashvili.
Staliniri [Tskhinvali, South Ossetian Autonomous Region] : South Ossetia State Publishing House (Samkhreti Osetis Sakhelgami), 1956. 120 pp. ; 18 cm.
Half-binding (paper-covered boards, brown cloth spine). Print run of only 2,000 copies.
Binding good: front board lightly soiled; back board with a prominent circular moisture stain at center; spine intact. Text block very good: leaves clean, text complete throughout.

This volume of critical essays on Georgian and Ossetian literary history was published by the South Ossetia State Publishing House in Staliniri - the Soviet-era name (used from the early 1930s until 1961) of Tskhinvali, the capital of the South Ossetian Autonomous Region of the Georgian SSR. The book appeared in 1956, at an historically charged moment: just weeks after Khrushchev's Secret Speech of February 1956 had initiated the de-Stalinization process within the Soviet Communist Party, yet five years before the renaming campaign would strip Stalin's name from cities, including Staliniri itself (renamed Tskhinvali in 1961). A copy bearing "Staliniri" on both cover and title page is thus a document of this precise transitional instant in Soviet cultural politics. The South Ossetia State Publishing House was one of the smallest and most geographically isolated publishing units in the Soviet system, serving a region of some 100,000 inhabitants: its output in the 1950s was limited, issued in small print runs for local institutional distribution, and it rarely reached the broader Soviet book trade. Books from this publisher in Georgian - the primary literary language of the region alongside Ossetian - are extremely uncommon on the international antiquarian market. The print run of 2,000 copies is genuinely very small by Soviet standards and confirms the institutional character of the publication. The subject matter - combining literary history and criticism of both Georgian literature and Ossetian literature - reflects the dual cultural orientation of South Ossetian academic life in the Soviet period. Akaki Sarionovich Topuria was an active literary scholar in the Georgian SSR academic world. Collectors of Caucasian regional publishing history, Soviet nationalities policy, Georgian-Ossetian cultural history, and de-Stalinization ephemera will find this a genuinely uncommon document.