Alexander Melentyevich Volkov ( ; 14 June 1891 – 3 July 1977) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, university lecturer. He was an author of novels, short stories, plays and poems for children, mostly remembered for the ''Magic Land'' series of books, based on L. Frank Baum's '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''.

Biography

Volkov was born in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk Oblast,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now Oskemen,

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

). 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. 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 (; , ) 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 confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

, 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 headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management Management (or managing ...

of the rabfak. He completed coursework and passed the external examinations at the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

in seven months. Starting in 1931 he worked as teacher, and later as

Docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

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'' (), is a loose translation of the first Oz book, with chapters added, altered, or omitted, and 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's books, but the publisher paid no royalties to the Baum estate. First published in 1939 in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, 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'', 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 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'' 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; a super-robot). Volkov's ''Magic Land'' series was translated into many languages and was popular with children all over the

Eastern bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

. Volkov's version of Oz seems to be better known than Baum's in some countries, for example in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, in Germany (especially former

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

), and also in

Arab countries The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

such as

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. In Germany, two authors have written their own set of sequels to Volkov's books. The books in the series have been translated into English by Peter L. Blystone, and were published by Red Branch Press in three volumes (two books per volume) in 1991, 1993, and 2007. A revised edition of the first two-book volume was published in 2010.Volkov, Alexander Melentyevich, translation by Peter L. Blystone. ''Tales of Magic Land 1'' (2nd revised edition). Red Branch Press, 2010.

Bibliography

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 Giordano Bruno ( , ; ; born Filippo Bruno; January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, poet, alchemist, astrologer, cosmological theorist, and esotericist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which concep ...

) *''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