Our small publishing venture, Erythrós Press and Media, his yielded its first official publication. The book Red Youth: Young Heroes of the Great Patriotic War went on sale earlier this week through our online store. This book is hopefully the first volume in a series of books that will chronicle the outstanding achievements of the youngest fighters in the Soviet Union's struggle against fascist Germany during World War II. This volume tells the story of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was the first female fighter of World War II to be named "Hero of the Soviet Union." I have been preparing materials for this project as far back as late 2004 when I began transcribing the entire contents of Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya's 1953 book The Story of Zoya and Shura for greeklish.org. Shortly thereafter, I began research for an annotated version of the book that I hoped to publish in print at some point in the future. I did quite a bit of work on this project, compiling a huge annotated manuscript and reams of notes, but I shelved the project after I developed many questions and concerns regarding Soviet and Russian copyright law.
A while later, I resurrected the project, first intending to produce a single-volume work which featured biographies of a number of young heroes, including Zoya, Marat Kazey, Elizaveta Chaikina, Zinaida Portnova and others. Realizing I had a significant amount of material on Zoya alone as a result of my previous research, I settled on the idea of developing a multi-volume set that would include newly annotated transcriptions of public domain, Soviet era documents along with my original introductory notes and supplemental information. This first volume of Red Youth is thus the culmination of over four years of work.
I have a tendency towards self-criticism and this tends to effect how I feel about things at the end of a relatively long project. Such is the case with Red Youth. Upon my initial perusal of the finished product, I immediately noticed a few block quotes that weren't properly indented and a missed line break or two. That wasn't so bad. Probably my most unfortunate oversight (which I noticed a bit later) was my failure to include V. I. Lenin's name in the table of contents listing for his 1920 work "Tasks of the Youth Leagues." The document itself is properly noted and cited later in the text, but I would have liked for an important feature like the table of contents to be completely accurate. A good friend put things in perspective for me, however. He told me that having a handful of imperfections gives the work a feeling of credibility that might not otherwise come with an immaculately produced product from a big, bourgeois publishing house. I suppose that is a nice way to look at it.
Whatever the case, I need to get to work promoting and distributing the work to spread the story of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya far and wide once again.
The book is dedicated to Thomaï and our girls, along with Peyman Piran, Anoosheh Azadbar and the Freedom and Equality Speaking Students of Iran.
More information about Red Youth is provided on a special page from the Erythrós Press and Media online store. A complete listing of the table of contents and ordering instructions are included. Click here to download my Foreword to the book.
Quite a few of my close friends helped me with this project through hard work, patience, encouragement and support. Below is the complete text of my "Acknowledgments" section from the book.
A number of people from around the world contributed significant time and effort toward the preparation and enhancement of this book. I am especially grateful to my friend Andy Blunden for his assistance and guidance in all aspects of my work, with particular appreciation for his help in formatting and editing the complete text of this volume. Brian Reid and Clara Statello also assisted in proofreading and editing of most of the documents contained herein and their critique and support were vital to this endeavor. Randy Graham also helped by proofreading selected documents.
Mitch Abidor provided much-needed advice and encouragement at a critical point in my writing.
I thank Tim Davenport from the Early American Marxism website for providing source material. I am also indebted to Steve Palmer and my other fellow volunteers of the Marxists Internet Archive for their collective assistance with a number of research topics.
My friends Einde O'Callaghan, Nina Lebed, Antonis Megremis and Nikos Loudos assisted with the translation of selected passages from source documents and research materials.
I also extend my heartfelt gratitude for my dear friends who have inspired me through their political work and activism. I am thankful to know Panos Fidis, Sam Berner, and many of the students and supporters of the Freedom and Equality Seeking Students of Iran. It is their work and struggle that inspires me to move forward in numerous endeavors, including this project.
I am fortunate to have the friendship and tutelage of David Walters who has provided me with valuable camaraderie, guidance and insight for almost a decade. I am certainly a better person for knowing him.
Finally, I must express my deepest appreciation for the love and companionship of my wife Thomaï. She is my most important supporter and critic and she is responsible for everything good and decent in my life.
Mike Bessler
May 2009
