Volkov and the Wizard of OZ

[George Fowler]

Greetings, SEELangers!

>Does anyone know if Volkov's works are actually published as
>translations, or as his original works? Has this question
>ever been addressed in media such as Literaturnaya Gazeta?
>
>Brenden West

     I just happen to be a member of the International Wizard of Oz
Society, and receive their rather philological journal "The Baum Bugle", as
well as all the ad mailings and other things they send out.
     A few years ago, they published a rather detailed discussion of the
relation between Volkov's first story (The Baum Bugle, 35(3): 15-21,
Winter, 1991; "A Story's Fortunate Destiny", by one Miron Petrovsky). This
was a translation of an afterward to a 1987 edition of the Russian text,
issued by "Central Ural Book Publisher" (whoever they are!). This is a
rather pretentious afterward, invoking Immanuel Kant, the Russian Old
Believers, and so forth. Volkov was a mathematician at the Moscow Institute
of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold, who read the original Baum novel, and
retold it in his own terms, adding chapters such as "Ellie [=Dorothy] in
the Clutches of the Ogre", "The Deluge", and "In Search of Friends". He
also omitted some incidents. Jurij Nagibin is quoted as preferring Volkov's
retelling. The book was first published in 1939, and it's publication was
apparently ensured by Marshak and Makarenko. Volkov subsequently wrote five
more novels (Urfin Jus and His Wooden Soldiers, The Seven Underground
Kings, The Fiery God of the Marrans, The Yellow Fog, and The Mystery of the
Deserted Castle; I don't know the Russian titles). In this respect, Volkov
could be likened to the many people who have written sequels to the Oz
series, most notably Ruth Plumly Thompson, but also John R. O'Neil, who
illustrated most of the books, as well as various descendents of L. Frank
Baum. I have read some of Thompson's stories (Baum wrote 14 novels plus one
recent posthumous collection of short stories; Thompson wrote 25 or so).
They are not nearly as good as most of the Baum novels (of course, not
everybody thinks they are good either!). The general problem, which
bedeviled Baum himself, and I imagine is typical of all the sequels,
including Volkov's, is: where do you take the plots? About all you can do
is invent more undiscovered corners of Oz, with new and peculiar
inhabitants (such as the people in one Baum book who were jigsaw puzzles;
if you scared them, they flew apart and it took hours to put them back
together so you could talk with them! I thought this is pretty cute!), OR
you can bring in more people from outside Oz, allowing them to perceive its
peculiarities through fresh eyes (a kind of ostranenie, isn't it?). Volkov
did both of these, apparently.

It is my impression, which I couldn't verify with a hasty glance through my
backfile of the Bugle, that one or more of the Volkov works have been
translated into English and published by the very active boutique presses
that specialize in Oziana. If someone really wants to know, try OCLC first,
then email me. There is also an email list, not very active, devoted to Oz
matters; I think I could dig up its address if necessary.

People who are interested could no doubt get the article I've cited here by
inter-library loan; I'm sure some academic libraries in the U.S. must take
the Baum Bugle. If you need a bibliographic citation, just fill in
SEELangs!!

George Fowler
>A few years ago, I found out about a very popular children's
>book in Russia called 'The Wizard from the Emerald City',
>written by Alexander Volkov.
>
>This and a series of other books by the same author appear
>to be word-for-word translations of works by Frank L. Baum,
>written nearly a century ago. Yet Russians I have spoken
>with believed these were original Russian stories. I have
>been told that they were the most popular children's stories
>for a generation of Russians.
>

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