Politicizing Magic: An Anthology of Russian and Soviet Fairy Tales

434 Pages·2005·2.71 MB·English

by  Marina Balina

P M
OLITICIZING AGIC

(cid:2) P M (cid:3)
OLITICIZING AGIC
An Anthology ofRussian and Soviet Fairy Tales
Edited by Marina Balina,
Helena Goscilo,and
Mark Lipovetsky
northwestern university press
evanston,illinois
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2005 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2005. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
ISBN-13: 978-0-8101-2031-0 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-8101-2031-3 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8101-2032-7 (paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8101-2032-1 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Politicizing magic : an anthology of Russian and Soviet fairy tales / edited by Marina
Balina, Helena Goscilo, and Mark Lipovetsky.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8101-2031-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8101-2032-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Fairy tales—Russian (Federation) 2. Fairy tales—Soviet Union. 3. Folk literature,
Russian—Translations into English. 4. Folk literature, Soviet—Translations into English.
I. Balina, Marina. II. Goscilo, Helena, 1945– III. Lipoveëtìskiæi, M. N. (Mark Naumovich)
GR203.17.P65 2005
398.2'0947—dc22
2005010140
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
For Felix J.Oinas,the supreme bogatyr ofSlavic folkloristics

C
ONTENTS
Foreword ix
PART I
Folkloric Fairy Tales
Introduction 5
The Frog Princess 23
The Three Kingdoms 28
Baba Yaga 32
Vasilisa the Beautiful 34
Maria Morevna 42
Tale ofPrince Ivan,the Firebird,and the Gray Wolf 51
The Feather ofFinist the Bright Falcon 62
The Magic Mirror 69
Danilo the Luckless 79
Ilya Muromets and the Dragon 85
The Maiden Tsar 91
The Magic Ring 96
PART II
Fairy Tales ofSocialist Realism
Introduction 105
Tale ofthe Military Secret,Malchish-Kibalchish
and His Solemn Word 123
Arkady Gaidar
The Golden Key,or The Adventures ofBuratino 131
Alexey Tolstoy
The Old Genie Khottabych: A Story ofMake-Believe 165
Lazar Lagin
The Malachite Casket 197
Pavel Bazhov
The Flower ofSeven Colors 222
Valentin Kataev
PART III
Fairy Tales in Critique ofSoviet Culture
Introduction 233
Fairy Tales for Grown-Up Children 251
Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Dragon: A Satiric Fable in Three Acts 267
Yevgeny Shvarts
Tale ofthe Troika 316
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Before the Cock Crows Thrice 345
Vasily Shukshin
That Very Munchausen 381
Grigory Gorin
Translators and Sources 417
F
OREWORD
Anyone surfing the Internet in the early twenty-first century,with
technology at an ambiguous peak and materialism at an all-time
high,might be startled at the numerous Web sites featuring texts that
recycle ageless folklore genres and,above all,fairy tales.Whether es-
capism or exoticized psychological landscapism,fairy tales resemble
science fiction in their capacity to clothe the problematically familiar
in a colorful symbolic garb that is accessible even to the intellectually
challenged.Throughout the centuries,tales of happenstance and
extraterrestrial heroism,inexplicable magical transformations,and
narrative closures affirming eternal happiness have entranced all
generations in disparate and diverse sociopolitical structures that
nevertheless find common ground in folkloric modes of thought.
Readers and viewers in the age of virtual reality are no exception.
During an era that glorifies well-intentioned mediocrity—the ever-
widening and intellectually sinking middle—Ivan the Fool in the con-
temporary guise of bumbling Gump remains alive and well in
Hollywoodized America and, no doubt, throughout the world.
Today’s lottery winners are yesteryear’s credulous fairy-tale protago-
nists.The modern Cinderella continues to toil and to toilette in vir-
tually all cultures,from ash-filled British and Russian hearths to Cal-
ifornia’s fast-dollared streets,reaping magical,logic-defying rewards
in such celluloid fantasies as the Stalinist Radiant Path (Svetlyi put’,
ix