Vladimir Vasil'evich Lebedev
(Born St. Petersburg, 1891; died Leningrad, 1967)
Samuil Iakovlevich Marshak
(Born Voronezh, 1887; died Moscow, 1964)

The Wedding Present, TASS No. 0507, July 1, 1942

Stencil
2358 x 934 mm
In Germany for each marriage the newlyweds are obliged to purchase Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”. This book has earned millions of marks for Hitler.
(From newspaper reports)

Everyone who wants to marry,
To bind his fate for evermore
With the fate of a widow or a maiden:
Everyone must read "Mein Kampf."

The newlyweds are frozen in place
As if they are nailed to a pillar,
And an armed bandit orders them
To purchase Mein Kampf.

Certainly, it would be better
To buy a coffee pot for one's wife,
But Adolf Hitler needs
Millions more marks!
Gift of the USSR Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, 2010.114