Alexander Melentyevich Volkov (russian: Александр Мелентьевич Волков ; 14 June 1891 – 3 July 1977) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

, playwright, university lecturer. Аuthor of novels, short stories, plays and poems for children, mostly remembered for the Magic Land series of books, based on

L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's books, particularly ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the ''Oz'' series, plus 41 other novels (not includ ...

's ''

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz afte ...

''.

Biography

Volkov was born in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk Oblast,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now Oskemen,

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

). At the age of 12 he graduated from the Ust-Kamenogorsk town school as valedictorian, where he would later teach. In 1907 he entered the Tomsk Teachers Institute. In 1909 he graduated with right to teach all subjects of the school curriculum, except for the

Law of God Divine law is any body of law that is perceived as deriving from a transcendent source, such as the will of God or godsin contrast to man-made law or to secular law. According to Angelos Chaniotis and Rudolph F. Peters, divine laws are typically ...

. He began to work as a teacher in Ust-Kamenogorsk. Starting in 1910, he worked as a mathematics teacher in the village of Kolyvan. In the 1920s he moved to

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl ( rus, Ярослáвль, p=jɪrɐˈsɫavlʲ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluenc ...

, where he worked as a school principal. He graduated in absentia from the mathematical faculty of the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute. In 1929 he moved to Moscow, where he worked as the

head teacher A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...

of the rabfak. He completed coursework and passed the external examinations at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow University in seven months. Starting in 1931 he worked as teacher, and later as

Docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de con ...

of the Department of Higher Mathematics of the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold.

Writings

Magic Land series

The first of these books, '' The Wizard of the Emerald City'' (russian: Волшебник Изумрудного города),Drew, Bernard A. (2010)
''Literary Afterlife: The Posthumous Continuations of 325 Authors' Fictional Characters''
p. 197. McFarland & Company, Inc. is a loose translation of the first Oz book, with chapters added, altered, or omitted, some names changed (for example, Dorothy becomes "Ellie", Oz is renamed " Magic Land", and Toto can talk when in Magic Land), and several characters given personal names instead of generic ones. Baum's name is mentioned in the first of Volkov books but the Soviet Union paid no royalties to the Baum estate. First published in 1939 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, ...

, the book became quite popular; and in the 1960s Volkov also wrote his own sequels to the story. He liberally borrowed from some of the originals, such as using the "Powder of Life" idea from ''

The Marvelous Land of Oz ''The Marvelous Land of Oz: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman'', commonly shortened to ''The Land of Oz'', published in July 1904, is the second of L. Frank Baum's books set in the Land of Oz, and th ...

'', but mostly created a divergent universe. From 1963 to 1970, four more books in the series were published, with the sixth and final story published posthumously in 1982. Other authors such as Yuri Kuznetsov, Sergei Sukhinov, and Leonid Vladimirsky (Volkov's original illustrator) have recently written additional sequels in Russian, creating in effect an alternative series of

Oz books The Oz books form a book series that begins with ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900) and relates the fictional history of the Land of Oz. Oz was created by author L. Frank Baum, who went on to write fourteen full-length Oz books. All of Baum's b ...

. The context and situations found in the Volkov version are notably different from the original Baum version in their political tones. The situations, while still maintaining a childlike clarity of good versus evil, often involve the characters encountering very mature political and ethical decisions. The heroes are repeatedly called upon to defend Magic Land against invasions or topple feudalistic or aristocratic governments to free the populace. Both themes are often found in Soviet sci-fi and adventure literature (see the Strugatsky brothers' novels ''

Hard to be a God ''Hard to Be a God'' (russian: Трудно быть богом, translit=''Trudno byt' bogom'') is a 1964 science-fiction novel by the Soviet writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, set in the Noon Universe. Premise and themes The novel follow ...

'' and '' Inhabited Island''). Volkov had faith in the omnipotence of the man-made technique, so the wizardry of his heroes was usually won with the help of various technical inventions (a cannon designed by Charly Black, a mechanical drill, and Tilly-Willy's super-robot). Volkov's ''Magic Land'' series was translated into many languages and was popular with children all over the Eastern bloc. Volkov's version of Oz seems to be better known than Baum's in some countries, for example in China, in Germany (especially former

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

), and also in

Arab countries The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...

such as Syria. In Germany, two authors have written her own set of sequels to Volkov's books. The books in Volkov's ''Magic Land'' series have been translated into English — or retranslated, in the case of the first book — by Peter L. Blystone, and were published by Red Branch Press in three volumes (two books a volume) in 1991 (revised edition 2010), 1993, and 2007.

Volkov's Magic-Land books

*'' The Wizard of the Emerald City'' (Волшебник Изумрудного города, 1939) *'' Urfin Joos and his Wooden Soldiers'' (Урфин Джюс и его деревянные солдаты, 1963) *'' The Seven Underground Kings'' (Семь подземных королей, 1964) *'' The Fiery God of the Marrans'' (Огненный бог марранов, 1968) *'' The Yellow Fog'' (Жёлтый туман, 1970) *'' The Secret of the Deserted Castle'' (Тайна заброшенного замка, 1975, published in 1982)

Other books

*''Wonderful balloon (The first aeronaut)'' (1940) *''The Two Brothers'' (1950, rewritten in 1961) *''The Architects'' (1954) *''Astern trace'' (1960) *''The Wandering'' (1963) (about childhood and youth of Giordano Bruno) *''Prisoner of Zargrad'' (1969) *''Land and Sky'' (1972)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Volkov, Alexander Melentyevich 1891 births 1977 deaths 20th-century Russian novelists 20th-century Russian male writers Russian children's writers Soviet children's writers Russian fantasy writers Soviet fantasy writers Russian science fiction writers Soviet science fiction writers Russian male novelists Soviet novelists Soviet male writers Russian historical novelists Tomsk State Pedagogical University alumni