A most interesting and very rare periodical from the early Soviet era! It was published 6 times per month, reflecting and promoting the short-lived (1929 - 1931) experiment with 5-day weeks, i.e., 4 workdays + 1 day of rest. An amazing kink on the Bolshevik's obsession with destroying everything that was "old" and replacing it with something new, more often than not half-baked and just giving the country's economy indigestion if not outright diarrhea. The issue covers mostly economic news: industrialization, collectivization, planned economic growth of the enormous country as a whole.

A most interesting and very rare periodical from the early Soviet era! It was published 6 times per month, reflecting and promoting the short-lived (1929 - 1931) experiment with 5-day weeks, i.e., 4 workdays + 1 day of rest. An amazing kink on the Bolshevik's obsession with destroying everything that was "old" and replacing it with something new, more often than not half-baked and just giving the country's economy indigestion if not outright diarrhea. The issue covers mostly economic news: industrialization, collectivization, planned economic growth of the enormous country as a whole. The new railroad between Turkestan (Turkmenistan in the 1930s vernacular) and Siberia will allow Turkestan to rely on Siberia for bread, stop growing their own and focus entirely on cotton. Cotton needs more water? The Soviets re-route the Amu-Darya and the Syr-Darya rivers, et voila! And who cares that the entire Aral Sea will dry up in just a few decades. And so on, and so forth. If George Orwell didn't read the Pyatidnevka, he should have.

Interestingly, the publishers of the Pyatidnevka went all out in terms of providing high-quality illustrations, using the mezzo-tint lithograph technique, creating their engraved copper or steel matrices by scraping or burnishing its roughened surface to produce light and shade.

The issue is in fair to good condition. Being printed on thin newsprint, it shows just a moderate amount of corner and edge wear, areas of separation at the fold line as well as some moderate soiling. The issue is still uncut and unfolds into a single large sheet totaling eight 18" x 12 ½" pages. The photo illustrations, text and graphics of advertisements are perfectly clean, crisp and bright.

Here's an idea! Read 2 pages per day, then rest a day, and here goes your entire 1930 pyatidnevka week!

Jokes aside, this is a most unusual and fascinating item to bring your display of early Soviet memorabilia to a whole new level.
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