''Children of the Arbat'' (russian: Дети Арбата) is a
semi-autobiographical
An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. ...
historical novel by
Anatoly Rybakov
Anatoly Naumovich Rybakov (russian: Анато́лий Нау́мович Рыбако́в; – 23 December 1998) was a Soviet and Ukrainian writer, the author of the anti-Stalinist ''Children of the Arbat ''trilogy, the novel ''Heavy Sand' ...
set during the era of
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
.
Premise
It recounts the era in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
of the build-up to the
Congress of the Victors
The 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was held during 26 January – 10 February 1934. The congress was attended by 1,225 delegates with a casting vote and 736 delegates with a consultative vote, representing 1,872,48 ...
, the early years of the second
Five Year Plan and the (supposed) circumstances of the murder of
Sergey Kirov
Sergei Mironovich Kirov ( né Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary whose assassination led to the first Great Purge.
Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and mem ...
prior to the beginning of the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
. It is the first book of the trilogy, followed by the books ''1935 and Other Years'' (russian: Тридцать пятый и другие годы, (Book I of ''Fear'') 1989), ''
Fear
Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...
'' (russian: Страх)
and ''
Dust and Ashes
''Dust and Ashes'' (russian: Прах и пепел) is a novel by Anatoly Rybakov that recounts the era in the Soviet Union of the build-up to the ' Congress of the Victors' (26 January - 10 February 1934), the early years of the second Five Yea ...
'' (russian: Прах и пепел).
The novel
The story is mainly told that of the fictional Sasha Pankratov, a sincere and loyal
Komsomol member who is exiled as a result of party intrigues. Rybakov too was exiled in the early 1930s. Hysteria grows as simple mistakes and humor are seen as examples of sabotage or acts of wreckers. (''
The Joke'' by
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera (, ; born 1 April 1929) is a Czech writer who went into exile in France in 1975, becoming a naturalised French citizen in 1981. Kundera's Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, then conferred again in 2019. He "sees himself ...
deals with similar topics). The book exposes how, despite the honest intentions of Pankratov and older
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
s like Kirov,
Stalinism is destroying all their hopes.
The novel is also notable for its portrayal of
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
as a scheming and paranoid figure.
The book, which was written between 1966 and 1983, was suppressed until the
Perestroika era (published for the first time as a ''
feuilleton
A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of french: feuillet, the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art critici ...
'' in 1987). It was a great publishing sensation of that era owing to its criticism of the Soviet system, its portrayal of Stalin and harsh in its cynical view of those who turned the Soviet Union into a "Great Power".
English translation
The English translation, by
Harold Shukman
Harold Shukman (23 March 1931 – 11 July 2012) was a British historian, specialising in the history of Russia.
Shukman was born in London to a family of Jewish immigrants escaping from the Russian Empire. His father, David Shukman, whose first n ...
, was first published in 1988 by Little, Brown & Company (). It was later reprinted in paperback by Dell Publishing, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell ().
See also
*''
Children of the Arbat'' - a 16-part television serial based on Rybakov's trilogy
References
External links
*Sheppard, R.Z. & Jackson, James O. (June 6, 1988)
"Red-Hot Children of the Arbat" ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
''. About the book's first Soviet editions.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Children Of The Arbat
Novels by Anatoly Rybakov
1987 novels
Novels about political repression in the Soviet Union
Works originally published in Russian newspapers
Novels set in the 1930s
Book censorship in the Soviet Union
Censored books