Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet UnionThe example of the Wizards Oz and Goodwin

Judith A InggsUniversity of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg

The study of translation and censorship is of particular interest in the context of Russia and the Soviet Union With the aim of stimulating further discussion particularly in relation to recent developments in the sociology of translation this article takes the example of L Frank Baumrsquos The Wizard of Oz (1900) and its adaptation by Alexander Volkov as The Wizard of the Emerald City (Volshebnik izumrudnogo goroda) (1939) in order to explore the relationship between the multiple forces at work in the translation of childrenrsquos literature under condi-tions of censorship By means of an analysis of the differences between the two texts I conclude that censorship is a complex phenomenon which provides fertile ground for the creative manipulation and appropriation of texts and can be considered as an active participant in the creation of an image of a foreign body of literature and its location in a particular literary field

Keywords translation censorship childrenrsquos literature Soviet literature Bourdieu sociology of translation

1 Introduction

The traditional importance of foreign literature in Russia and the Soviet Union combined with the crucial role played by ideology in the production of literature means that the study of translation and censorship is of particular interest in that context It is therefore surprising that it has not been the object of more scholarly research in the West although there has been further interest recently (for exam-ple Sherry 2010) With the aim of stimulating further discussion particularly in relation to recent developments in the sociology of translation1 this article takes the example of L Frank Baumrsquos The Wizard of Oz (1900) and its adaptation by Alexander Volkov as The Wizard of the Emerald City (Volshebnik izumrudnogo

Target 231 (2011) 77ndash91 doi 101075target23105ingissn 0924ndash1884 e-issn 1569ndash9986 copy John Benjamins Publishing Company

78 Judith A Inggs

goroda) (1939) in order to explore the relationship between the multiple forces at work in the translation of childrenrsquos literature under conditions of censorship In doing this I do not accept the traditionally held view on Russian censorship described by Jan Plamper as ldquothe repression of the inherently and essentially free wordrdquo (Plamper 2001 526) but proceed from the standpoint that censorship is a complex phenomenon which is not simply imposed from above in order to silence and repress ideas and concepts but which also provides fertile ground for the cre-ative manipulation and appropriation of texts Plamper does move away slightly from the traditional view to suggest that censorship is ldquono more and no less than one of the forces shaping cultural circulationrdquo (2001 527) but I believe that it also needs to be considered as an active participant in the creation of an image of a foreign body of literature and its location in a particular literary field

The discussion is informed by recent writing on the sociology of translation specifically drawing on Pierre Bourdieursquos philosophy of action (Bourdieu 1998) and Jean-Marc Gouanvicrsquos insightful article A Bourdieusian Theory of Transla-tion in which he highlights ldquopoints of convergence between the reflections of the sociologist and questions of translationrdquo (Gouanvic 2005 147) The concepts of Bourdieursquos theory relevant here are habitus field and capital with the centrepiece being ldquothe two-way relationship between objective structures (those of social fields) and incorporated structures (those of the habitus)rdquo (Bourdieu 1998 vii) Social fields include fields such as literary systems and institutions whereas the habitus is a set of ldquogenerating principles of distinct and distinctive practicesrdquo (1998 8) which cause social agents to behave in particular ways As the notions of field and habitus are intertwined the practices of translators writers publish-ers and censors operating in the literary mdash and other mdash fields may be regarded as shaped by the various political social and cultural forces in play in a particular context Goanvic elaborates on this as follows

hellipthe object of research in translation studies ultimately becomes the analysis of the differential relationship between the habitus of translation agents (including publishers critics etc) who have taken a position in a given target field in a given epoch and the determinant factors of the target fields as the site of reception of the translation (2005 148)

During the Stalin era in the mid 1930s when publishing was controlled by the state and all private publishing houses had been banned Volkov a Soviet math-ematician and professor completed a translation of The Wizard of Oz There is an uncorroborated report that Volkovrsquos translation was rejected by the Soviet censors2 resulting in him rewriting the story in the form of a Russian lsquoversionrsquo which was published in 1939 Volkovrsquos adaptation did not acknowledge Baum in any way not least because he had no legal obligation to do so as the USSR only

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 79

became a signatory to the Universal Copyright Convention in 1973 (Tax Chold-in 1986 338) Volkovrsquos version became immensely popular and was followed by numerous sequels which took on a life of their own despite further borrowing from Baumrsquos own thirteen sequels4 (Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) In a pattern of reci-procity Volkovrsquos books were subsequently translated into thirteen languages and found their way back into English in a series of translations by Peter L Blystone entitled Tales of Magic Land (1991) In a further cycle after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union new translations of the original Baum text appeared for example Udivitelrsquonyi volshebnik iz Strany Oz (The Wonderful Wizard of the Land of Oz) translated by S Belkov (1998) By this time however Volkovrsquos series of books had been so imprinted on the public as favourite Russian childrenrsquos classics that the new translations were ldquoviewed as colorless and inferior to the well-loved clas-sics for which they provided the modelrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The impact of Volkovrsquos lsquoloose translationsrsquo or versions highlights the effects of both institutionalised censorship and self-censorship in the (re)creation of new works based on first texts originating in a separate social and literary context It is also an interesting example of the notions of adaptation and appropriation as a form of translation Acceptance of such appropriation was not uncommon in the Soviet Union and was a direct result of the legacy of pre-revolutionary attitudes towards literary translation firmly rooted in a tradition of free translation and re-writing Reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was considered acceptable mdash even desirable mdash to appropriate lsquofirst textsrsquo from another literary system and transform them into lsquofirst textsrsquo in the target system As adaptation and rewriting are features of both translation and censorship the scope for manipulating and appropriating the first text by the various agents involved is extensive as Fran-cesca Billiani points out (2007 3) In relation to Volkov and Baum the situation is further complicated by the fact that both writer and writer-translator acquire symbolic capital mdash any kind of capital regarded as possessing value by social agents mdash as both the original and the adaptation achieved the status of canonised classics in their respective literary fields

2 Censorship and Translation in Russia and the Soviet Union

One of the reasons that translations have always played an important role in the Russian literary field is that modern Russian literature only developed fully in the eighteenth century As a result translations from other older literatures have al-ways represented a large proportion of works available to the public It is not the purpose of this article to present a detailed account of censorship in Russia or in the Soviet Union3 but as Maurice Friedberg notes literary translations specifically

80 Judith A Inggs

attracted the attention of the censor because they exposed readers to a foreign culture and ideology and thus represented a potential threat to the ideological val-ues the respective authorities sought to nurture and foster (Friedberg 1997 13) A further significant factor was that many of the most active literary translators were themselves writers giving them a particular habitus which affected the translations that they produced in that they were predisposed to engage in free translation and adaptation (Friedberg 1997 36) There were times when more literal translation was favoured for example during the Romantic period which emphasised ldquore-spect for alien cultural traditionsrdquo (Friedberg 1997 43) but this faded after the mid-1800s In general free translations and adaptations of foreign works of litera-ture abounded in some cases with no acknowledgement of the original author This effectively legitimised plagiarism so that translators regarded original texts as their own property to be manipulated as they chose (Friedberg 1997 31ndash2)

After the Revolution it suited the Soviet authorities to continue to encour-age such practices partly because translators as well as writers were required to conform to the tenets of socialist realism and to highlight elements relating to the class struggle or to remove unsuitable or so-called bourgeois elements in a professed attempt to make foreign literature relevant to Russians5 When Volkov produced his Wizard of the Emerald City in 1939 lsquofree translationrsquo was at its height Friedberg describes translators at that time as having a ldquocavalier disregard of the originalrdquo and becoming ldquoself-appointed co-author[s]rdquo (1997 87) The same period was one of intensified state censorship with the organ responsible for censorship (Glavlit) becoming directly subordinate to the Central Committee of the Commu-nist Party in 1932 (Ermolaev 1997 3) One of its central tasks was to purge libraries of authors ldquobranded enemies of the peoplerdquo During 1938 and 1939 alone sixteen and a half thousand titles were removed from libraries and bookshops (Ermolaev 1997 57) Other works were extensively cut or altered before being published6 This practice also applied to translations and as the general public had no ac-cess to source language originals they were ignorant of the extent to which works had been rewritten or lsquoamputatedrsquo Ivan Kashkin a leading Soviet translator and theoretician stated that a Soviet literary translator ldquomust perceive and reproduce the reality of the original in the light of our world-view [and] the translatorrsquos par-ticipation in the life of our literaturerdquo (quoted in Friedberg 1997 104) Yet Soviet critics never confronted the corollary of a socialist realist approach to translation mdash ldquothe sanctioning of ideological censorship of non-Soviet texts to the point of premeditated distortionrdquo (Friedberg 1997 105) Lauren Leighton takes an oppo-site point of view in his work comparing Russian and Western translation theory noting that Soviet translators regarded rewriting as ldquodishonourablerdquo (Leighton 1991 13) However this does not seem to be borne out in practice Indeed Leigh-ton goes on to say that one of the postulates of the Soviet school of translation was

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 81

that the translated text should have the same effect on its readers as on the original readers (Leighton 1991 14) This in itself implies extensive domestication of the text to make it more accessible to the new target audience in line with the dictates referred to above

Of course a large part of the censorship that took place was self-imposed by writers and translators who learned to use strategies which would avoid bringing them into conflict with the authorities Bourdieu describes this type of censorship as particularly successful when unconsciously self-imposed by those agents oper-ating in the literary field He writes

Censorship is never quite as perfect or as invisible as when each agent has noth-ing to say apart from what he is objectively authorized to say in this case he does not even have to be his own censor because he is in a way censored once and for all through the forms of perception and expression that he has internalised and which impose their form on all his expressions (Bourdieu 1991 138)

One phenomenon specific to the Russian and Soviet context is known as lsquoAeso-pian languagersquo a term coined by M Saltykov-Shchedrin in the 1860s and a detailed account of which is given by Lev Loseff in his On the Beneficence of Censorship (Loseff 1984) This is an extreme example of the creativity engendered by a liter-ary system governed by institutionalised censorship Aesopian language developed from a particular kind of writing used to imply an ideological attitude or political statement which might otherwise attract the attention of the censors ldquoHints and circumlocutionsrdquo by means of literary devices such as parody were therefore com-mon in many writersrsquo works Loseff likens Aesopian language to the concept of a mode of writing the third element of Barthesrsquos model of language style and writ-ing influenced by historical and social conditions (Loseff 1984 6ndash7) Such a mode of writing can be seen as forming part of the writerrsquos habitus It was familiar to most Russian writers and translators and was not only used in literature for adults but also for children As indicated above many writers in order to make a living under the stringent conditions of post-revolutionary Russia turned to translation In the 1920s many writers similarly abandoned their primary goal of writing for adults and turned to childrenrsquos literature which allowed the expression of ideas that would have otherwise been prohibited As a result it was often aimed at a dual au-dience Aesopian language was particularly useful as it meant that a work could be read on several levels depending on the readerrsquos knowledge and background For example Kornei Chukovsky regarded as the founder of Russian childrenrsquos litera-ture and a leading Soviet translator and theoretician made extensive use of parody in his works and in this way his books played a significant role in nurturing gener-ations of readers who were accustomed to seeking a subtext in the works they read (Loseff 1984 198) This phenomenon is not directly evident in Volkovrsquos work but it

82 Judith A Inggs

considerably strengthens the argument concerning the creative effect of censorship on the production of literature A I Herzen had highlighted this influence as early as the mid-nineteenth century ldquohellipcensorship is highly conducive to progress in the mastery of style and the ability to restrain onersquos wordsrdquo (quoted in Loseff 1984 11)

Many writers were involved in both translating and writing for children But of course not only the writers and translators were involved in the process and four actors can be identified in the production of translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union the Author the Censor the Translator and the Reader s Each of these agents acted within particular structures or fields which shaped the writing translation and reading of literature often placing sociocultural so-cio-political and institutional constraints on those processes Just as writers were expected to write in line with the tenets of socialist realism translators were also obliged to act and translate in specific ways applying a form of self-censorship within the framework of their own education and knowledge of the world within the restricted lsquofieldrsquo of translation in the Soviet Union Gouanvic speaks of writers in the US in the inter-war period being obliged to ldquoplay the sociocultural game in the American social space treating themes and discourses that conformed to the ambient doxardquo (Gouanvic 2005 153) This is exactly the kind of game (illusio in Bourdieursquos terminology) that was being played in the Soviet Union during the same era mdash for both sets of writers and translators the trick lay in ldquobeing able to find innovative ways around this censorship this is how they made their markrdquo (Gouanvic 2005 153)

Structural censorship in the Soviet Union took place in a particular field de-termined by the habitus of the agents in that field but it was not just as Billiani describes structural censorship ldquoa set of unwritten rules shaped both by the cur-rent habitus and by the symbolic capital a text enjoys in a certain fieldrdquo (Billiani 2007 8) In the Soviet Union there were also institutional written rules alongside the unwritten ones shaped by the various agents involved and also by Communist Party policy Literary texts not only existed in the artistic field but also in the po-litical field where they were regarded as words on paper rather than works of art (Loseff 1984 5) Thus the relationship between the written and the unwritten rules became a further site for playing a socio-political and ideological game and not only a socio-cultural one

3 Translated Childrenrsquos Literature in the Soviet Union

Foreign childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union can be regarded as a restricted field in that it was translated and published by a specific state publishing house founded by Gorky in 1933 with the express objective of translating the lsquobestrsquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 83

childrenrsquos books from around the world Leninrsquos wife Nadezhda Krupskaia be-lieved that childrenrsquos books were the foundation of the materialist world-view of the next generation (OrsquoDell 1978 53) and that their primary purpose was to instil in children a revolutionary communist ideology As early as 1918 childrenrsquos litera-ture had been singled out as the medium with the greatest potential for implanting ideas most in accord with the desired social development (Starza 1984 28) When socialist realism became the authorised literary genre over the next ten to fifteen years it required that reality be reflected in a positive light doubts and uncertain-ties in the minds of the characters were discouraged and passages of introspec-tion or psychological analysis were regarded as undesirable The central themes of new works were military patriotic and revolutionary in contrast with the main themes of Western writing for children7 As a result a strict selection process was followed to identify works to be translated while many existing translations were removed from circulation Nevertheless in much the same way as Aesopian lan-guage allowed the expression of ideas that would have been unacceptable if stated openly fantasy literature for children also flourished during this period As Maria Nikolajeva explains the restrictive cultural climate in the Soviet Union meant that ldquofor some authors a childrenrsquos book or more precisely a fairy tale or fantastic tale appeared to be the best way to express beliefs that in strictly realistic prose might seem controversial or alien to the official ideologyrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The image of English language childrenrsquos literature was inevitably distorted as a result As contemporary works were the most likely to contain anti-revolution-ary content an image of English-language childrenrsquos literature was constructed which was largely defined by nineteenth century and early twentieth century writ-ers such as Mark Twain Daniel Defoe Robert Louis Stevenson Jack London and William Mayne Reid (Brandis 1980) Works which are considered classic texts of English language childrenrsquos literature such as Peter Pan (1904) and Mary Poppins (1934) only appeared in the late 1960s and The Hobbit (1937) and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) only in the 1970s although the latter two did not receive a great deal of attention at the time (Nikolajeva 1995 106) Anne of Green Gables (1908) was still unknown in the mid 1990s and as late as 1992 Enid Blyton whose works have been translated into over 90 languages was unknown to the librarian in charge of the foreign language section at the largest childrenrsquos library in Moscow (Personal interview 1992)8 At the end of the 1980s calls began to be made by Soviet critics for works to be made available which were well known in-ternationally but virtually unknown in the Soviet Union for example Charlottersquos Web the Tarzan series and works by Blyton and Beatrix Potter (Volrsquope 1989 45) Unfortunately the hunger for previously unavailable works led to wholesale and indiscriminate translations the quality of which was often very poor This was exacerbated by the fact that in the early 1990s for the first time in fifty or sixty

84 Judith A Inggs

years publishers were required to become self-sufficient and profitable often set-ting prices far above a reasonable level For example in 1989 Volkovrsquos The Wizard of the Emerald City was on sale in Moscow for a price twice the average monthly income (Nikolajeva 1995 108)

32 The Example of The Wizard of Oz

The reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation are unclear but the changes made in Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City provide some indication Adaptations during the Soviet period highlighted those values which were preva-lent in original literature written for children a sense of comradeship rather than personal enrichment hard work and loyalty to society rather than individualistic gain Maria Nikolajeva notes that

[t]he focus in many of the adaptations shifted from the attainment of wealth or other personal benefits (such as Pinocchiorsquos longing to become a human boy) toward social improvements collective happiness freedom equality and other empty slogans of official Soviet culture (1995 106)9

Baumrsquos own Wizard of Oz generally attracted the attention of economists rather than literary critics In 1964 Henry Littlefield argued that Baumrsquos work was a ldquopar-able on populismrdquo and drew analogies with contemporary economic and political issues (Parker 1994) In 1990 Hugh Rockoff presented the story as a monetary allegory These and other scholars interpreted the book as a ldquocritique of American industrial capitalismrdquo (Parker 1994) Such interpretations may not have been con-trary to Soviet ideology but by the 1980s they were challenged notably by William R Leach who rather saw Baumrsquos work as a celebration of the ldquourban consumer culture of the turn of the centuryrdquo helping to ldquomake people feel at home in Amer-icarsquos new industrial economyrdquo and to ldquoappreciate and enjoy without guilt the new consumer abundance and way of living produced by that economyrdquo (quoted in Parker 1994) Parkerrsquos conclusion is that there was no factual basis for asserting that Baum wrote his book as a populist allegory mdash but equally that it could be read as an allegory of the silver movement during which time silver became a symbol of economic justice for the American people not long before The Wizard of Oz was written It is hard to avoid the significance of the silver slippers which hold a potent power and which are eventually revealed as able to take their wearer wher-ever she wishes to go The silver slippers are retained in Volkovrsquos work although it is unlikely that Russian readers would have been aware of the significance or the details of the Free Silver Movement

In his introduction Baum states that the story was written solely ldquoto pleasure childrenrdquo aspiring to be a ldquomodernized fairy tale in which the wonderment and

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 85

joy are retained and the heart-ache and nightmares are left outrdquo Even if Parkerrsquos comment that the story ldquoshowed American society and culture in all its wonderful diversity and contradictionsrdquo is true (1994) these are not the details that Volkov omits In both Baumrsquos and Volkovrsquos work Dorothy and Elliersquos first night spent with the Munchkins is characterised by an abundance of good food and in Volkovrsquos tale ldquoa huge number of pastries were eaten and an immeasurable quantity of soft drinks consumedrdquo (Volkov 1992 24)10 whereas such excesses are not referred to in Baumrsquos story which only mentions that the house ldquowas the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the landrdquo (Baum 30) In both stories too the central mes-sage that the Wizard is a fraud and an impostor albeit benevolent is retained The main changes introduced by Volkov involve the portrayal of the characters in line with the socialist realist requirements that they should display courage decisive-ness and the ability to work in a team Volkov succeeds in turning Baumrsquos undeni-ably insipid characters into deeper and more complex characters with strength-ened personal qualities such as friendship loyalty and steadfastness This overall change is evident from the very beginning of the narrative which in the original opens with a description of the tediousness and drudgery of the everyday life of Dorothyrsquos aunt and uncle Baum emphasises the lack of joy in their lives and the bleakness of the landscape where ldquoeverything was dull and greyrdquo (Baum 1985 14) It was not acceptable however to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s mdash a decade characterised by intense suffering on the part of Russian peasants who were forced into collective farming Volkov removes Dorothyrsquos orphan status and endows his protagonist Ellie with loving and cheer-ful parents called Anna and Farmer John in stark contrast with Baumrsquos Aunt Em who was ldquothin and gaunt and never smiled nowrdquo and Uncle Henry who ldquonever laughedrdquo and ldquodid not know what joy wasrdquo (Baum 1985 14) Volkov places a strong emphasis on his charactersrsquo fortitude and steadfastness whenever a hurricane overturns the small house trailer in which they live John is described as setting it upright again putting the stove and the beds back in place while Ellie collects the scattered pewter plates and other meagre belongings until ldquoeverything would be in order again mdash until the next stormrdquo (Volkov 1992 5)

Besides depicting his characters differently Volkov also made significant changes to the content of the story In line with the Soviet view that misfortune is caused by an external enemy the cyclone is no longer a natural phenomenon but is conjured up by the wicked witch Gingema who replaces the Wicked Witch of the East and who is plotting to destroy humankind (see Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 184) Similarly it is not pure chance that brings the house down on Gingemarsquos head but the work of Villina the Witch of the Yellow Land who is the counterpart of the Witch of the North

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

78 Judith A Inggs

goroda) (1939) in order to explore the relationship between the multiple forces at work in the translation of childrenrsquos literature under conditions of censorship In doing this I do not accept the traditionally held view on Russian censorship described by Jan Plamper as ldquothe repression of the inherently and essentially free wordrdquo (Plamper 2001 526) but proceed from the standpoint that censorship is a complex phenomenon which is not simply imposed from above in order to silence and repress ideas and concepts but which also provides fertile ground for the cre-ative manipulation and appropriation of texts Plamper does move away slightly from the traditional view to suggest that censorship is ldquono more and no less than one of the forces shaping cultural circulationrdquo (2001 527) but I believe that it also needs to be considered as an active participant in the creation of an image of a foreign body of literature and its location in a particular literary field

The discussion is informed by recent writing on the sociology of translation specifically drawing on Pierre Bourdieursquos philosophy of action (Bourdieu 1998) and Jean-Marc Gouanvicrsquos insightful article A Bourdieusian Theory of Transla-tion in which he highlights ldquopoints of convergence between the reflections of the sociologist and questions of translationrdquo (Gouanvic 2005 147) The concepts of Bourdieursquos theory relevant here are habitus field and capital with the centrepiece being ldquothe two-way relationship between objective structures (those of social fields) and incorporated structures (those of the habitus)rdquo (Bourdieu 1998 vii) Social fields include fields such as literary systems and institutions whereas the habitus is a set of ldquogenerating principles of distinct and distinctive practicesrdquo (1998 8) which cause social agents to behave in particular ways As the notions of field and habitus are intertwined the practices of translators writers publish-ers and censors operating in the literary mdash and other mdash fields may be regarded as shaped by the various political social and cultural forces in play in a particular context Goanvic elaborates on this as follows

hellipthe object of research in translation studies ultimately becomes the analysis of the differential relationship between the habitus of translation agents (including publishers critics etc) who have taken a position in a given target field in a given epoch and the determinant factors of the target fields as the site of reception of the translation (2005 148)

During the Stalin era in the mid 1930s when publishing was controlled by the state and all private publishing houses had been banned Volkov a Soviet math-ematician and professor completed a translation of The Wizard of Oz There is an uncorroborated report that Volkovrsquos translation was rejected by the Soviet censors2 resulting in him rewriting the story in the form of a Russian lsquoversionrsquo which was published in 1939 Volkovrsquos adaptation did not acknowledge Baum in any way not least because he had no legal obligation to do so as the USSR only

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 79

became a signatory to the Universal Copyright Convention in 1973 (Tax Chold-in 1986 338) Volkovrsquos version became immensely popular and was followed by numerous sequels which took on a life of their own despite further borrowing from Baumrsquos own thirteen sequels4 (Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) In a pattern of reci-procity Volkovrsquos books were subsequently translated into thirteen languages and found their way back into English in a series of translations by Peter L Blystone entitled Tales of Magic Land (1991) In a further cycle after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union new translations of the original Baum text appeared for example Udivitelrsquonyi volshebnik iz Strany Oz (The Wonderful Wizard of the Land of Oz) translated by S Belkov (1998) By this time however Volkovrsquos series of books had been so imprinted on the public as favourite Russian childrenrsquos classics that the new translations were ldquoviewed as colorless and inferior to the well-loved clas-sics for which they provided the modelrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The impact of Volkovrsquos lsquoloose translationsrsquo or versions highlights the effects of both institutionalised censorship and self-censorship in the (re)creation of new works based on first texts originating in a separate social and literary context It is also an interesting example of the notions of adaptation and appropriation as a form of translation Acceptance of such appropriation was not uncommon in the Soviet Union and was a direct result of the legacy of pre-revolutionary attitudes towards literary translation firmly rooted in a tradition of free translation and re-writing Reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was considered acceptable mdash even desirable mdash to appropriate lsquofirst textsrsquo from another literary system and transform them into lsquofirst textsrsquo in the target system As adaptation and rewriting are features of both translation and censorship the scope for manipulating and appropriating the first text by the various agents involved is extensive as Fran-cesca Billiani points out (2007 3) In relation to Volkov and Baum the situation is further complicated by the fact that both writer and writer-translator acquire symbolic capital mdash any kind of capital regarded as possessing value by social agents mdash as both the original and the adaptation achieved the status of canonised classics in their respective literary fields

2 Censorship and Translation in Russia and the Soviet Union

One of the reasons that translations have always played an important role in the Russian literary field is that modern Russian literature only developed fully in the eighteenth century As a result translations from other older literatures have al-ways represented a large proportion of works available to the public It is not the purpose of this article to present a detailed account of censorship in Russia or in the Soviet Union3 but as Maurice Friedberg notes literary translations specifically

80 Judith A Inggs

attracted the attention of the censor because they exposed readers to a foreign culture and ideology and thus represented a potential threat to the ideological val-ues the respective authorities sought to nurture and foster (Friedberg 1997 13) A further significant factor was that many of the most active literary translators were themselves writers giving them a particular habitus which affected the translations that they produced in that they were predisposed to engage in free translation and adaptation (Friedberg 1997 36) There were times when more literal translation was favoured for example during the Romantic period which emphasised ldquore-spect for alien cultural traditionsrdquo (Friedberg 1997 43) but this faded after the mid-1800s In general free translations and adaptations of foreign works of litera-ture abounded in some cases with no acknowledgement of the original author This effectively legitimised plagiarism so that translators regarded original texts as their own property to be manipulated as they chose (Friedberg 1997 31ndash2)

After the Revolution it suited the Soviet authorities to continue to encour-age such practices partly because translators as well as writers were required to conform to the tenets of socialist realism and to highlight elements relating to the class struggle or to remove unsuitable or so-called bourgeois elements in a professed attempt to make foreign literature relevant to Russians5 When Volkov produced his Wizard of the Emerald City in 1939 lsquofree translationrsquo was at its height Friedberg describes translators at that time as having a ldquocavalier disregard of the originalrdquo and becoming ldquoself-appointed co-author[s]rdquo (1997 87) The same period was one of intensified state censorship with the organ responsible for censorship (Glavlit) becoming directly subordinate to the Central Committee of the Commu-nist Party in 1932 (Ermolaev 1997 3) One of its central tasks was to purge libraries of authors ldquobranded enemies of the peoplerdquo During 1938 and 1939 alone sixteen and a half thousand titles were removed from libraries and bookshops (Ermolaev 1997 57) Other works were extensively cut or altered before being published6 This practice also applied to translations and as the general public had no ac-cess to source language originals they were ignorant of the extent to which works had been rewritten or lsquoamputatedrsquo Ivan Kashkin a leading Soviet translator and theoretician stated that a Soviet literary translator ldquomust perceive and reproduce the reality of the original in the light of our world-view [and] the translatorrsquos par-ticipation in the life of our literaturerdquo (quoted in Friedberg 1997 104) Yet Soviet critics never confronted the corollary of a socialist realist approach to translation mdash ldquothe sanctioning of ideological censorship of non-Soviet texts to the point of premeditated distortionrdquo (Friedberg 1997 105) Lauren Leighton takes an oppo-site point of view in his work comparing Russian and Western translation theory noting that Soviet translators regarded rewriting as ldquodishonourablerdquo (Leighton 1991 13) However this does not seem to be borne out in practice Indeed Leigh-ton goes on to say that one of the postulates of the Soviet school of translation was

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 81

that the translated text should have the same effect on its readers as on the original readers (Leighton 1991 14) This in itself implies extensive domestication of the text to make it more accessible to the new target audience in line with the dictates referred to above

Of course a large part of the censorship that took place was self-imposed by writers and translators who learned to use strategies which would avoid bringing them into conflict with the authorities Bourdieu describes this type of censorship as particularly successful when unconsciously self-imposed by those agents oper-ating in the literary field He writes

Censorship is never quite as perfect or as invisible as when each agent has noth-ing to say apart from what he is objectively authorized to say in this case he does not even have to be his own censor because he is in a way censored once and for all through the forms of perception and expression that he has internalised and which impose their form on all his expressions (Bourdieu 1991 138)

One phenomenon specific to the Russian and Soviet context is known as lsquoAeso-pian languagersquo a term coined by M Saltykov-Shchedrin in the 1860s and a detailed account of which is given by Lev Loseff in his On the Beneficence of Censorship (Loseff 1984) This is an extreme example of the creativity engendered by a liter-ary system governed by institutionalised censorship Aesopian language developed from a particular kind of writing used to imply an ideological attitude or political statement which might otherwise attract the attention of the censors ldquoHints and circumlocutionsrdquo by means of literary devices such as parody were therefore com-mon in many writersrsquo works Loseff likens Aesopian language to the concept of a mode of writing the third element of Barthesrsquos model of language style and writ-ing influenced by historical and social conditions (Loseff 1984 6ndash7) Such a mode of writing can be seen as forming part of the writerrsquos habitus It was familiar to most Russian writers and translators and was not only used in literature for adults but also for children As indicated above many writers in order to make a living under the stringent conditions of post-revolutionary Russia turned to translation In the 1920s many writers similarly abandoned their primary goal of writing for adults and turned to childrenrsquos literature which allowed the expression of ideas that would have otherwise been prohibited As a result it was often aimed at a dual au-dience Aesopian language was particularly useful as it meant that a work could be read on several levels depending on the readerrsquos knowledge and background For example Kornei Chukovsky regarded as the founder of Russian childrenrsquos litera-ture and a leading Soviet translator and theoretician made extensive use of parody in his works and in this way his books played a significant role in nurturing gener-ations of readers who were accustomed to seeking a subtext in the works they read (Loseff 1984 198) This phenomenon is not directly evident in Volkovrsquos work but it

82 Judith A Inggs

considerably strengthens the argument concerning the creative effect of censorship on the production of literature A I Herzen had highlighted this influence as early as the mid-nineteenth century ldquohellipcensorship is highly conducive to progress in the mastery of style and the ability to restrain onersquos wordsrdquo (quoted in Loseff 1984 11)

Many writers were involved in both translating and writing for children But of course not only the writers and translators were involved in the process and four actors can be identified in the production of translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union the Author the Censor the Translator and the Reader s Each of these agents acted within particular structures or fields which shaped the writing translation and reading of literature often placing sociocultural so-cio-political and institutional constraints on those processes Just as writers were expected to write in line with the tenets of socialist realism translators were also obliged to act and translate in specific ways applying a form of self-censorship within the framework of their own education and knowledge of the world within the restricted lsquofieldrsquo of translation in the Soviet Union Gouanvic speaks of writers in the US in the inter-war period being obliged to ldquoplay the sociocultural game in the American social space treating themes and discourses that conformed to the ambient doxardquo (Gouanvic 2005 153) This is exactly the kind of game (illusio in Bourdieursquos terminology) that was being played in the Soviet Union during the same era mdash for both sets of writers and translators the trick lay in ldquobeing able to find innovative ways around this censorship this is how they made their markrdquo (Gouanvic 2005 153)

Structural censorship in the Soviet Union took place in a particular field de-termined by the habitus of the agents in that field but it was not just as Billiani describes structural censorship ldquoa set of unwritten rules shaped both by the cur-rent habitus and by the symbolic capital a text enjoys in a certain fieldrdquo (Billiani 2007 8) In the Soviet Union there were also institutional written rules alongside the unwritten ones shaped by the various agents involved and also by Communist Party policy Literary texts not only existed in the artistic field but also in the po-litical field where they were regarded as words on paper rather than works of art (Loseff 1984 5) Thus the relationship between the written and the unwritten rules became a further site for playing a socio-political and ideological game and not only a socio-cultural one

3 Translated Childrenrsquos Literature in the Soviet Union

Foreign childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union can be regarded as a restricted field in that it was translated and published by a specific state publishing house founded by Gorky in 1933 with the express objective of translating the lsquobestrsquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 83

childrenrsquos books from around the world Leninrsquos wife Nadezhda Krupskaia be-lieved that childrenrsquos books were the foundation of the materialist world-view of the next generation (OrsquoDell 1978 53) and that their primary purpose was to instil in children a revolutionary communist ideology As early as 1918 childrenrsquos litera-ture had been singled out as the medium with the greatest potential for implanting ideas most in accord with the desired social development (Starza 1984 28) When socialist realism became the authorised literary genre over the next ten to fifteen years it required that reality be reflected in a positive light doubts and uncertain-ties in the minds of the characters were discouraged and passages of introspec-tion or psychological analysis were regarded as undesirable The central themes of new works were military patriotic and revolutionary in contrast with the main themes of Western writing for children7 As a result a strict selection process was followed to identify works to be translated while many existing translations were removed from circulation Nevertheless in much the same way as Aesopian lan-guage allowed the expression of ideas that would have been unacceptable if stated openly fantasy literature for children also flourished during this period As Maria Nikolajeva explains the restrictive cultural climate in the Soviet Union meant that ldquofor some authors a childrenrsquos book or more precisely a fairy tale or fantastic tale appeared to be the best way to express beliefs that in strictly realistic prose might seem controversial or alien to the official ideologyrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The image of English language childrenrsquos literature was inevitably distorted as a result As contemporary works were the most likely to contain anti-revolution-ary content an image of English-language childrenrsquos literature was constructed which was largely defined by nineteenth century and early twentieth century writ-ers such as Mark Twain Daniel Defoe Robert Louis Stevenson Jack London and William Mayne Reid (Brandis 1980) Works which are considered classic texts of English language childrenrsquos literature such as Peter Pan (1904) and Mary Poppins (1934) only appeared in the late 1960s and The Hobbit (1937) and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) only in the 1970s although the latter two did not receive a great deal of attention at the time (Nikolajeva 1995 106) Anne of Green Gables (1908) was still unknown in the mid 1990s and as late as 1992 Enid Blyton whose works have been translated into over 90 languages was unknown to the librarian in charge of the foreign language section at the largest childrenrsquos library in Moscow (Personal interview 1992)8 At the end of the 1980s calls began to be made by Soviet critics for works to be made available which were well known in-ternationally but virtually unknown in the Soviet Union for example Charlottersquos Web the Tarzan series and works by Blyton and Beatrix Potter (Volrsquope 1989 45) Unfortunately the hunger for previously unavailable works led to wholesale and indiscriminate translations the quality of which was often very poor This was exacerbated by the fact that in the early 1990s for the first time in fifty or sixty

84 Judith A Inggs

years publishers were required to become self-sufficient and profitable often set-ting prices far above a reasonable level For example in 1989 Volkovrsquos The Wizard of the Emerald City was on sale in Moscow for a price twice the average monthly income (Nikolajeva 1995 108)

32 The Example of The Wizard of Oz

The reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation are unclear but the changes made in Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City provide some indication Adaptations during the Soviet period highlighted those values which were preva-lent in original literature written for children a sense of comradeship rather than personal enrichment hard work and loyalty to society rather than individualistic gain Maria Nikolajeva notes that

[t]he focus in many of the adaptations shifted from the attainment of wealth or other personal benefits (such as Pinocchiorsquos longing to become a human boy) toward social improvements collective happiness freedom equality and other empty slogans of official Soviet culture (1995 106)9

Baumrsquos own Wizard of Oz generally attracted the attention of economists rather than literary critics In 1964 Henry Littlefield argued that Baumrsquos work was a ldquopar-able on populismrdquo and drew analogies with contemporary economic and political issues (Parker 1994) In 1990 Hugh Rockoff presented the story as a monetary allegory These and other scholars interpreted the book as a ldquocritique of American industrial capitalismrdquo (Parker 1994) Such interpretations may not have been con-trary to Soviet ideology but by the 1980s they were challenged notably by William R Leach who rather saw Baumrsquos work as a celebration of the ldquourban consumer culture of the turn of the centuryrdquo helping to ldquomake people feel at home in Amer-icarsquos new industrial economyrdquo and to ldquoappreciate and enjoy without guilt the new consumer abundance and way of living produced by that economyrdquo (quoted in Parker 1994) Parkerrsquos conclusion is that there was no factual basis for asserting that Baum wrote his book as a populist allegory mdash but equally that it could be read as an allegory of the silver movement during which time silver became a symbol of economic justice for the American people not long before The Wizard of Oz was written It is hard to avoid the significance of the silver slippers which hold a potent power and which are eventually revealed as able to take their wearer wher-ever she wishes to go The silver slippers are retained in Volkovrsquos work although it is unlikely that Russian readers would have been aware of the significance or the details of the Free Silver Movement

In his introduction Baum states that the story was written solely ldquoto pleasure childrenrdquo aspiring to be a ldquomodernized fairy tale in which the wonderment and

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 85

joy are retained and the heart-ache and nightmares are left outrdquo Even if Parkerrsquos comment that the story ldquoshowed American society and culture in all its wonderful diversity and contradictionsrdquo is true (1994) these are not the details that Volkov omits In both Baumrsquos and Volkovrsquos work Dorothy and Elliersquos first night spent with the Munchkins is characterised by an abundance of good food and in Volkovrsquos tale ldquoa huge number of pastries were eaten and an immeasurable quantity of soft drinks consumedrdquo (Volkov 1992 24)10 whereas such excesses are not referred to in Baumrsquos story which only mentions that the house ldquowas the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the landrdquo (Baum 30) In both stories too the central mes-sage that the Wizard is a fraud and an impostor albeit benevolent is retained The main changes introduced by Volkov involve the portrayal of the characters in line with the socialist realist requirements that they should display courage decisive-ness and the ability to work in a team Volkov succeeds in turning Baumrsquos undeni-ably insipid characters into deeper and more complex characters with strength-ened personal qualities such as friendship loyalty and steadfastness This overall change is evident from the very beginning of the narrative which in the original opens with a description of the tediousness and drudgery of the everyday life of Dorothyrsquos aunt and uncle Baum emphasises the lack of joy in their lives and the bleakness of the landscape where ldquoeverything was dull and greyrdquo (Baum 1985 14) It was not acceptable however to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s mdash a decade characterised by intense suffering on the part of Russian peasants who were forced into collective farming Volkov removes Dorothyrsquos orphan status and endows his protagonist Ellie with loving and cheer-ful parents called Anna and Farmer John in stark contrast with Baumrsquos Aunt Em who was ldquothin and gaunt and never smiled nowrdquo and Uncle Henry who ldquonever laughedrdquo and ldquodid not know what joy wasrdquo (Baum 1985 14) Volkov places a strong emphasis on his charactersrsquo fortitude and steadfastness whenever a hurricane overturns the small house trailer in which they live John is described as setting it upright again putting the stove and the beds back in place while Ellie collects the scattered pewter plates and other meagre belongings until ldquoeverything would be in order again mdash until the next stormrdquo (Volkov 1992 5)

Besides depicting his characters differently Volkov also made significant changes to the content of the story In line with the Soviet view that misfortune is caused by an external enemy the cyclone is no longer a natural phenomenon but is conjured up by the wicked witch Gingema who replaces the Wicked Witch of the East and who is plotting to destroy humankind (see Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 184) Similarly it is not pure chance that brings the house down on Gingemarsquos head but the work of Villina the Witch of the Yellow Land who is the counterpart of the Witch of the North

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 79

became a signatory to the Universal Copyright Convention in 1973 (Tax Chold-in 1986 338) Volkovrsquos version became immensely popular and was followed by numerous sequels which took on a life of their own despite further borrowing from Baumrsquos own thirteen sequels4 (Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) In a pattern of reci-procity Volkovrsquos books were subsequently translated into thirteen languages and found their way back into English in a series of translations by Peter L Blystone entitled Tales of Magic Land (1991) In a further cycle after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union new translations of the original Baum text appeared for example Udivitelrsquonyi volshebnik iz Strany Oz (The Wonderful Wizard of the Land of Oz) translated by S Belkov (1998) By this time however Volkovrsquos series of books had been so imprinted on the public as favourite Russian childrenrsquos classics that the new translations were ldquoviewed as colorless and inferior to the well-loved clas-sics for which they provided the modelrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The impact of Volkovrsquos lsquoloose translationsrsquo or versions highlights the effects of both institutionalised censorship and self-censorship in the (re)creation of new works based on first texts originating in a separate social and literary context It is also an interesting example of the notions of adaptation and appropriation as a form of translation Acceptance of such appropriation was not uncommon in the Soviet Union and was a direct result of the legacy of pre-revolutionary attitudes towards literary translation firmly rooted in a tradition of free translation and re-writing Reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was considered acceptable mdash even desirable mdash to appropriate lsquofirst textsrsquo from another literary system and transform them into lsquofirst textsrsquo in the target system As adaptation and rewriting are features of both translation and censorship the scope for manipulating and appropriating the first text by the various agents involved is extensive as Fran-cesca Billiani points out (2007 3) In relation to Volkov and Baum the situation is further complicated by the fact that both writer and writer-translator acquire symbolic capital mdash any kind of capital regarded as possessing value by social agents mdash as both the original and the adaptation achieved the status of canonised classics in their respective literary fields

2 Censorship and Translation in Russia and the Soviet Union

One of the reasons that translations have always played an important role in the Russian literary field is that modern Russian literature only developed fully in the eighteenth century As a result translations from other older literatures have al-ways represented a large proportion of works available to the public It is not the purpose of this article to present a detailed account of censorship in Russia or in the Soviet Union3 but as Maurice Friedberg notes literary translations specifically

80 Judith A Inggs

attracted the attention of the censor because they exposed readers to a foreign culture and ideology and thus represented a potential threat to the ideological val-ues the respective authorities sought to nurture and foster (Friedberg 1997 13) A further significant factor was that many of the most active literary translators were themselves writers giving them a particular habitus which affected the translations that they produced in that they were predisposed to engage in free translation and adaptation (Friedberg 1997 36) There were times when more literal translation was favoured for example during the Romantic period which emphasised ldquore-spect for alien cultural traditionsrdquo (Friedberg 1997 43) but this faded after the mid-1800s In general free translations and adaptations of foreign works of litera-ture abounded in some cases with no acknowledgement of the original author This effectively legitimised plagiarism so that translators regarded original texts as their own property to be manipulated as they chose (Friedberg 1997 31ndash2)

After the Revolution it suited the Soviet authorities to continue to encour-age such practices partly because translators as well as writers were required to conform to the tenets of socialist realism and to highlight elements relating to the class struggle or to remove unsuitable or so-called bourgeois elements in a professed attempt to make foreign literature relevant to Russians5 When Volkov produced his Wizard of the Emerald City in 1939 lsquofree translationrsquo was at its height Friedberg describes translators at that time as having a ldquocavalier disregard of the originalrdquo and becoming ldquoself-appointed co-author[s]rdquo (1997 87) The same period was one of intensified state censorship with the organ responsible for censorship (Glavlit) becoming directly subordinate to the Central Committee of the Commu-nist Party in 1932 (Ermolaev 1997 3) One of its central tasks was to purge libraries of authors ldquobranded enemies of the peoplerdquo During 1938 and 1939 alone sixteen and a half thousand titles were removed from libraries and bookshops (Ermolaev 1997 57) Other works were extensively cut or altered before being published6 This practice also applied to translations and as the general public had no ac-cess to source language originals they were ignorant of the extent to which works had been rewritten or lsquoamputatedrsquo Ivan Kashkin a leading Soviet translator and theoretician stated that a Soviet literary translator ldquomust perceive and reproduce the reality of the original in the light of our world-view [and] the translatorrsquos par-ticipation in the life of our literaturerdquo (quoted in Friedberg 1997 104) Yet Soviet critics never confronted the corollary of a socialist realist approach to translation mdash ldquothe sanctioning of ideological censorship of non-Soviet texts to the point of premeditated distortionrdquo (Friedberg 1997 105) Lauren Leighton takes an oppo-site point of view in his work comparing Russian and Western translation theory noting that Soviet translators regarded rewriting as ldquodishonourablerdquo (Leighton 1991 13) However this does not seem to be borne out in practice Indeed Leigh-ton goes on to say that one of the postulates of the Soviet school of translation was

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 81

that the translated text should have the same effect on its readers as on the original readers (Leighton 1991 14) This in itself implies extensive domestication of the text to make it more accessible to the new target audience in line with the dictates referred to above

Of course a large part of the censorship that took place was self-imposed by writers and translators who learned to use strategies which would avoid bringing them into conflict with the authorities Bourdieu describes this type of censorship as particularly successful when unconsciously self-imposed by those agents oper-ating in the literary field He writes

Censorship is never quite as perfect or as invisible as when each agent has noth-ing to say apart from what he is objectively authorized to say in this case he does not even have to be his own censor because he is in a way censored once and for all through the forms of perception and expression that he has internalised and which impose their form on all his expressions (Bourdieu 1991 138)

One phenomenon specific to the Russian and Soviet context is known as lsquoAeso-pian languagersquo a term coined by M Saltykov-Shchedrin in the 1860s and a detailed account of which is given by Lev Loseff in his On the Beneficence of Censorship (Loseff 1984) This is an extreme example of the creativity engendered by a liter-ary system governed by institutionalised censorship Aesopian language developed from a particular kind of writing used to imply an ideological attitude or political statement which might otherwise attract the attention of the censors ldquoHints and circumlocutionsrdquo by means of literary devices such as parody were therefore com-mon in many writersrsquo works Loseff likens Aesopian language to the concept of a mode of writing the third element of Barthesrsquos model of language style and writ-ing influenced by historical and social conditions (Loseff 1984 6ndash7) Such a mode of writing can be seen as forming part of the writerrsquos habitus It was familiar to most Russian writers and translators and was not only used in literature for adults but also for children As indicated above many writers in order to make a living under the stringent conditions of post-revolutionary Russia turned to translation In the 1920s many writers similarly abandoned their primary goal of writing for adults and turned to childrenrsquos literature which allowed the expression of ideas that would have otherwise been prohibited As a result it was often aimed at a dual au-dience Aesopian language was particularly useful as it meant that a work could be read on several levels depending on the readerrsquos knowledge and background For example Kornei Chukovsky regarded as the founder of Russian childrenrsquos litera-ture and a leading Soviet translator and theoretician made extensive use of parody in his works and in this way his books played a significant role in nurturing gener-ations of readers who were accustomed to seeking a subtext in the works they read (Loseff 1984 198) This phenomenon is not directly evident in Volkovrsquos work but it

82 Judith A Inggs

considerably strengthens the argument concerning the creative effect of censorship on the production of literature A I Herzen had highlighted this influence as early as the mid-nineteenth century ldquohellipcensorship is highly conducive to progress in the mastery of style and the ability to restrain onersquos wordsrdquo (quoted in Loseff 1984 11)

Many writers were involved in both translating and writing for children But of course not only the writers and translators were involved in the process and four actors can be identified in the production of translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union the Author the Censor the Translator and the Reader s Each of these agents acted within particular structures or fields which shaped the writing translation and reading of literature often placing sociocultural so-cio-political and institutional constraints on those processes Just as writers were expected to write in line with the tenets of socialist realism translators were also obliged to act and translate in specific ways applying a form of self-censorship within the framework of their own education and knowledge of the world within the restricted lsquofieldrsquo of translation in the Soviet Union Gouanvic speaks of writers in the US in the inter-war period being obliged to ldquoplay the sociocultural game in the American social space treating themes and discourses that conformed to the ambient doxardquo (Gouanvic 2005 153) This is exactly the kind of game (illusio in Bourdieursquos terminology) that was being played in the Soviet Union during the same era mdash for both sets of writers and translators the trick lay in ldquobeing able to find innovative ways around this censorship this is how they made their markrdquo (Gouanvic 2005 153)

Structural censorship in the Soviet Union took place in a particular field de-termined by the habitus of the agents in that field but it was not just as Billiani describes structural censorship ldquoa set of unwritten rules shaped both by the cur-rent habitus and by the symbolic capital a text enjoys in a certain fieldrdquo (Billiani 2007 8) In the Soviet Union there were also institutional written rules alongside the unwritten ones shaped by the various agents involved and also by Communist Party policy Literary texts not only existed in the artistic field but also in the po-litical field where they were regarded as words on paper rather than works of art (Loseff 1984 5) Thus the relationship between the written and the unwritten rules became a further site for playing a socio-political and ideological game and not only a socio-cultural one

3 Translated Childrenrsquos Literature in the Soviet Union

Foreign childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union can be regarded as a restricted field in that it was translated and published by a specific state publishing house founded by Gorky in 1933 with the express objective of translating the lsquobestrsquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 83

childrenrsquos books from around the world Leninrsquos wife Nadezhda Krupskaia be-lieved that childrenrsquos books were the foundation of the materialist world-view of the next generation (OrsquoDell 1978 53) and that their primary purpose was to instil in children a revolutionary communist ideology As early as 1918 childrenrsquos litera-ture had been singled out as the medium with the greatest potential for implanting ideas most in accord with the desired social development (Starza 1984 28) When socialist realism became the authorised literary genre over the next ten to fifteen years it required that reality be reflected in a positive light doubts and uncertain-ties in the minds of the characters were discouraged and passages of introspec-tion or psychological analysis were regarded as undesirable The central themes of new works were military patriotic and revolutionary in contrast with the main themes of Western writing for children7 As a result a strict selection process was followed to identify works to be translated while many existing translations were removed from circulation Nevertheless in much the same way as Aesopian lan-guage allowed the expression of ideas that would have been unacceptable if stated openly fantasy literature for children also flourished during this period As Maria Nikolajeva explains the restrictive cultural climate in the Soviet Union meant that ldquofor some authors a childrenrsquos book or more precisely a fairy tale or fantastic tale appeared to be the best way to express beliefs that in strictly realistic prose might seem controversial or alien to the official ideologyrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The image of English language childrenrsquos literature was inevitably distorted as a result As contemporary works were the most likely to contain anti-revolution-ary content an image of English-language childrenrsquos literature was constructed which was largely defined by nineteenth century and early twentieth century writ-ers such as Mark Twain Daniel Defoe Robert Louis Stevenson Jack London and William Mayne Reid (Brandis 1980) Works which are considered classic texts of English language childrenrsquos literature such as Peter Pan (1904) and Mary Poppins (1934) only appeared in the late 1960s and The Hobbit (1937) and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) only in the 1970s although the latter two did not receive a great deal of attention at the time (Nikolajeva 1995 106) Anne of Green Gables (1908) was still unknown in the mid 1990s and as late as 1992 Enid Blyton whose works have been translated into over 90 languages was unknown to the librarian in charge of the foreign language section at the largest childrenrsquos library in Moscow (Personal interview 1992)8 At the end of the 1980s calls began to be made by Soviet critics for works to be made available which were well known in-ternationally but virtually unknown in the Soviet Union for example Charlottersquos Web the Tarzan series and works by Blyton and Beatrix Potter (Volrsquope 1989 45) Unfortunately the hunger for previously unavailable works led to wholesale and indiscriminate translations the quality of which was often very poor This was exacerbated by the fact that in the early 1990s for the first time in fifty or sixty

84 Judith A Inggs

years publishers were required to become self-sufficient and profitable often set-ting prices far above a reasonable level For example in 1989 Volkovrsquos The Wizard of the Emerald City was on sale in Moscow for a price twice the average monthly income (Nikolajeva 1995 108)

32 The Example of The Wizard of Oz

The reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation are unclear but the changes made in Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City provide some indication Adaptations during the Soviet period highlighted those values which were preva-lent in original literature written for children a sense of comradeship rather than personal enrichment hard work and loyalty to society rather than individualistic gain Maria Nikolajeva notes that

[t]he focus in many of the adaptations shifted from the attainment of wealth or other personal benefits (such as Pinocchiorsquos longing to become a human boy) toward social improvements collective happiness freedom equality and other empty slogans of official Soviet culture (1995 106)9

Baumrsquos own Wizard of Oz generally attracted the attention of economists rather than literary critics In 1964 Henry Littlefield argued that Baumrsquos work was a ldquopar-able on populismrdquo and drew analogies with contemporary economic and political issues (Parker 1994) In 1990 Hugh Rockoff presented the story as a monetary allegory These and other scholars interpreted the book as a ldquocritique of American industrial capitalismrdquo (Parker 1994) Such interpretations may not have been con-trary to Soviet ideology but by the 1980s they were challenged notably by William R Leach who rather saw Baumrsquos work as a celebration of the ldquourban consumer culture of the turn of the centuryrdquo helping to ldquomake people feel at home in Amer-icarsquos new industrial economyrdquo and to ldquoappreciate and enjoy without guilt the new consumer abundance and way of living produced by that economyrdquo (quoted in Parker 1994) Parkerrsquos conclusion is that there was no factual basis for asserting that Baum wrote his book as a populist allegory mdash but equally that it could be read as an allegory of the silver movement during which time silver became a symbol of economic justice for the American people not long before The Wizard of Oz was written It is hard to avoid the significance of the silver slippers which hold a potent power and which are eventually revealed as able to take their wearer wher-ever she wishes to go The silver slippers are retained in Volkovrsquos work although it is unlikely that Russian readers would have been aware of the significance or the details of the Free Silver Movement

In his introduction Baum states that the story was written solely ldquoto pleasure childrenrdquo aspiring to be a ldquomodernized fairy tale in which the wonderment and

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 85

joy are retained and the heart-ache and nightmares are left outrdquo Even if Parkerrsquos comment that the story ldquoshowed American society and culture in all its wonderful diversity and contradictionsrdquo is true (1994) these are not the details that Volkov omits In both Baumrsquos and Volkovrsquos work Dorothy and Elliersquos first night spent with the Munchkins is characterised by an abundance of good food and in Volkovrsquos tale ldquoa huge number of pastries were eaten and an immeasurable quantity of soft drinks consumedrdquo (Volkov 1992 24)10 whereas such excesses are not referred to in Baumrsquos story which only mentions that the house ldquowas the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the landrdquo (Baum 30) In both stories too the central mes-sage that the Wizard is a fraud and an impostor albeit benevolent is retained The main changes introduced by Volkov involve the portrayal of the characters in line with the socialist realist requirements that they should display courage decisive-ness and the ability to work in a team Volkov succeeds in turning Baumrsquos undeni-ably insipid characters into deeper and more complex characters with strength-ened personal qualities such as friendship loyalty and steadfastness This overall change is evident from the very beginning of the narrative which in the original opens with a description of the tediousness and drudgery of the everyday life of Dorothyrsquos aunt and uncle Baum emphasises the lack of joy in their lives and the bleakness of the landscape where ldquoeverything was dull and greyrdquo (Baum 1985 14) It was not acceptable however to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s mdash a decade characterised by intense suffering on the part of Russian peasants who were forced into collective farming Volkov removes Dorothyrsquos orphan status and endows his protagonist Ellie with loving and cheer-ful parents called Anna and Farmer John in stark contrast with Baumrsquos Aunt Em who was ldquothin and gaunt and never smiled nowrdquo and Uncle Henry who ldquonever laughedrdquo and ldquodid not know what joy wasrdquo (Baum 1985 14) Volkov places a strong emphasis on his charactersrsquo fortitude and steadfastness whenever a hurricane overturns the small house trailer in which they live John is described as setting it upright again putting the stove and the beds back in place while Ellie collects the scattered pewter plates and other meagre belongings until ldquoeverything would be in order again mdash until the next stormrdquo (Volkov 1992 5)

Besides depicting his characters differently Volkov also made significant changes to the content of the story In line with the Soviet view that misfortune is caused by an external enemy the cyclone is no longer a natural phenomenon but is conjured up by the wicked witch Gingema who replaces the Wicked Witch of the East and who is plotting to destroy humankind (see Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 184) Similarly it is not pure chance that brings the house down on Gingemarsquos head but the work of Villina the Witch of the Yellow Land who is the counterpart of the Witch of the North

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

80 Judith A Inggs

attracted the attention of the censor because they exposed readers to a foreign culture and ideology and thus represented a potential threat to the ideological val-ues the respective authorities sought to nurture and foster (Friedberg 1997 13) A further significant factor was that many of the most active literary translators were themselves writers giving them a particular habitus which affected the translations that they produced in that they were predisposed to engage in free translation and adaptation (Friedberg 1997 36) There were times when more literal translation was favoured for example during the Romantic period which emphasised ldquore-spect for alien cultural traditionsrdquo (Friedberg 1997 43) but this faded after the mid-1800s In general free translations and adaptations of foreign works of litera-ture abounded in some cases with no acknowledgement of the original author This effectively legitimised plagiarism so that translators regarded original texts as their own property to be manipulated as they chose (Friedberg 1997 31ndash2)

After the Revolution it suited the Soviet authorities to continue to encour-age such practices partly because translators as well as writers were required to conform to the tenets of socialist realism and to highlight elements relating to the class struggle or to remove unsuitable or so-called bourgeois elements in a professed attempt to make foreign literature relevant to Russians5 When Volkov produced his Wizard of the Emerald City in 1939 lsquofree translationrsquo was at its height Friedberg describes translators at that time as having a ldquocavalier disregard of the originalrdquo and becoming ldquoself-appointed co-author[s]rdquo (1997 87) The same period was one of intensified state censorship with the organ responsible for censorship (Glavlit) becoming directly subordinate to the Central Committee of the Commu-nist Party in 1932 (Ermolaev 1997 3) One of its central tasks was to purge libraries of authors ldquobranded enemies of the peoplerdquo During 1938 and 1939 alone sixteen and a half thousand titles were removed from libraries and bookshops (Ermolaev 1997 57) Other works were extensively cut or altered before being published6 This practice also applied to translations and as the general public had no ac-cess to source language originals they were ignorant of the extent to which works had been rewritten or lsquoamputatedrsquo Ivan Kashkin a leading Soviet translator and theoretician stated that a Soviet literary translator ldquomust perceive and reproduce the reality of the original in the light of our world-view [and] the translatorrsquos par-ticipation in the life of our literaturerdquo (quoted in Friedberg 1997 104) Yet Soviet critics never confronted the corollary of a socialist realist approach to translation mdash ldquothe sanctioning of ideological censorship of non-Soviet texts to the point of premeditated distortionrdquo (Friedberg 1997 105) Lauren Leighton takes an oppo-site point of view in his work comparing Russian and Western translation theory noting that Soviet translators regarded rewriting as ldquodishonourablerdquo (Leighton 1991 13) However this does not seem to be borne out in practice Indeed Leigh-ton goes on to say that one of the postulates of the Soviet school of translation was

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 81

that the translated text should have the same effect on its readers as on the original readers (Leighton 1991 14) This in itself implies extensive domestication of the text to make it more accessible to the new target audience in line with the dictates referred to above

Of course a large part of the censorship that took place was self-imposed by writers and translators who learned to use strategies which would avoid bringing them into conflict with the authorities Bourdieu describes this type of censorship as particularly successful when unconsciously self-imposed by those agents oper-ating in the literary field He writes

Censorship is never quite as perfect or as invisible as when each agent has noth-ing to say apart from what he is objectively authorized to say in this case he does not even have to be his own censor because he is in a way censored once and for all through the forms of perception and expression that he has internalised and which impose their form on all his expressions (Bourdieu 1991 138)

One phenomenon specific to the Russian and Soviet context is known as lsquoAeso-pian languagersquo a term coined by M Saltykov-Shchedrin in the 1860s and a detailed account of which is given by Lev Loseff in his On the Beneficence of Censorship (Loseff 1984) This is an extreme example of the creativity engendered by a liter-ary system governed by institutionalised censorship Aesopian language developed from a particular kind of writing used to imply an ideological attitude or political statement which might otherwise attract the attention of the censors ldquoHints and circumlocutionsrdquo by means of literary devices such as parody were therefore com-mon in many writersrsquo works Loseff likens Aesopian language to the concept of a mode of writing the third element of Barthesrsquos model of language style and writ-ing influenced by historical and social conditions (Loseff 1984 6ndash7) Such a mode of writing can be seen as forming part of the writerrsquos habitus It was familiar to most Russian writers and translators and was not only used in literature for adults but also for children As indicated above many writers in order to make a living under the stringent conditions of post-revolutionary Russia turned to translation In the 1920s many writers similarly abandoned their primary goal of writing for adults and turned to childrenrsquos literature which allowed the expression of ideas that would have otherwise been prohibited As a result it was often aimed at a dual au-dience Aesopian language was particularly useful as it meant that a work could be read on several levels depending on the readerrsquos knowledge and background For example Kornei Chukovsky regarded as the founder of Russian childrenrsquos litera-ture and a leading Soviet translator and theoretician made extensive use of parody in his works and in this way his books played a significant role in nurturing gener-ations of readers who were accustomed to seeking a subtext in the works they read (Loseff 1984 198) This phenomenon is not directly evident in Volkovrsquos work but it

82 Judith A Inggs

considerably strengthens the argument concerning the creative effect of censorship on the production of literature A I Herzen had highlighted this influence as early as the mid-nineteenth century ldquohellipcensorship is highly conducive to progress in the mastery of style and the ability to restrain onersquos wordsrdquo (quoted in Loseff 1984 11)

Many writers were involved in both translating and writing for children But of course not only the writers and translators were involved in the process and four actors can be identified in the production of translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union the Author the Censor the Translator and the Reader s Each of these agents acted within particular structures or fields which shaped the writing translation and reading of literature often placing sociocultural so-cio-political and institutional constraints on those processes Just as writers were expected to write in line with the tenets of socialist realism translators were also obliged to act and translate in specific ways applying a form of self-censorship within the framework of their own education and knowledge of the world within the restricted lsquofieldrsquo of translation in the Soviet Union Gouanvic speaks of writers in the US in the inter-war period being obliged to ldquoplay the sociocultural game in the American social space treating themes and discourses that conformed to the ambient doxardquo (Gouanvic 2005 153) This is exactly the kind of game (illusio in Bourdieursquos terminology) that was being played in the Soviet Union during the same era mdash for both sets of writers and translators the trick lay in ldquobeing able to find innovative ways around this censorship this is how they made their markrdquo (Gouanvic 2005 153)

Structural censorship in the Soviet Union took place in a particular field de-termined by the habitus of the agents in that field but it was not just as Billiani describes structural censorship ldquoa set of unwritten rules shaped both by the cur-rent habitus and by the symbolic capital a text enjoys in a certain fieldrdquo (Billiani 2007 8) In the Soviet Union there were also institutional written rules alongside the unwritten ones shaped by the various agents involved and also by Communist Party policy Literary texts not only existed in the artistic field but also in the po-litical field where they were regarded as words on paper rather than works of art (Loseff 1984 5) Thus the relationship between the written and the unwritten rules became a further site for playing a socio-political and ideological game and not only a socio-cultural one

3 Translated Childrenrsquos Literature in the Soviet Union

Foreign childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union can be regarded as a restricted field in that it was translated and published by a specific state publishing house founded by Gorky in 1933 with the express objective of translating the lsquobestrsquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 83

childrenrsquos books from around the world Leninrsquos wife Nadezhda Krupskaia be-lieved that childrenrsquos books were the foundation of the materialist world-view of the next generation (OrsquoDell 1978 53) and that their primary purpose was to instil in children a revolutionary communist ideology As early as 1918 childrenrsquos litera-ture had been singled out as the medium with the greatest potential for implanting ideas most in accord with the desired social development (Starza 1984 28) When socialist realism became the authorised literary genre over the next ten to fifteen years it required that reality be reflected in a positive light doubts and uncertain-ties in the minds of the characters were discouraged and passages of introspec-tion or psychological analysis were regarded as undesirable The central themes of new works were military patriotic and revolutionary in contrast with the main themes of Western writing for children7 As a result a strict selection process was followed to identify works to be translated while many existing translations were removed from circulation Nevertheless in much the same way as Aesopian lan-guage allowed the expression of ideas that would have been unacceptable if stated openly fantasy literature for children also flourished during this period As Maria Nikolajeva explains the restrictive cultural climate in the Soviet Union meant that ldquofor some authors a childrenrsquos book or more precisely a fairy tale or fantastic tale appeared to be the best way to express beliefs that in strictly realistic prose might seem controversial or alien to the official ideologyrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The image of English language childrenrsquos literature was inevitably distorted as a result As contemporary works were the most likely to contain anti-revolution-ary content an image of English-language childrenrsquos literature was constructed which was largely defined by nineteenth century and early twentieth century writ-ers such as Mark Twain Daniel Defoe Robert Louis Stevenson Jack London and William Mayne Reid (Brandis 1980) Works which are considered classic texts of English language childrenrsquos literature such as Peter Pan (1904) and Mary Poppins (1934) only appeared in the late 1960s and The Hobbit (1937) and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) only in the 1970s although the latter two did not receive a great deal of attention at the time (Nikolajeva 1995 106) Anne of Green Gables (1908) was still unknown in the mid 1990s and as late as 1992 Enid Blyton whose works have been translated into over 90 languages was unknown to the librarian in charge of the foreign language section at the largest childrenrsquos library in Moscow (Personal interview 1992)8 At the end of the 1980s calls began to be made by Soviet critics for works to be made available which were well known in-ternationally but virtually unknown in the Soviet Union for example Charlottersquos Web the Tarzan series and works by Blyton and Beatrix Potter (Volrsquope 1989 45) Unfortunately the hunger for previously unavailable works led to wholesale and indiscriminate translations the quality of which was often very poor This was exacerbated by the fact that in the early 1990s for the first time in fifty or sixty

84 Judith A Inggs

years publishers were required to become self-sufficient and profitable often set-ting prices far above a reasonable level For example in 1989 Volkovrsquos The Wizard of the Emerald City was on sale in Moscow for a price twice the average monthly income (Nikolajeva 1995 108)

32 The Example of The Wizard of Oz

The reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation are unclear but the changes made in Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City provide some indication Adaptations during the Soviet period highlighted those values which were preva-lent in original literature written for children a sense of comradeship rather than personal enrichment hard work and loyalty to society rather than individualistic gain Maria Nikolajeva notes that

[t]he focus in many of the adaptations shifted from the attainment of wealth or other personal benefits (such as Pinocchiorsquos longing to become a human boy) toward social improvements collective happiness freedom equality and other empty slogans of official Soviet culture (1995 106)9

Baumrsquos own Wizard of Oz generally attracted the attention of economists rather than literary critics In 1964 Henry Littlefield argued that Baumrsquos work was a ldquopar-able on populismrdquo and drew analogies with contemporary economic and political issues (Parker 1994) In 1990 Hugh Rockoff presented the story as a monetary allegory These and other scholars interpreted the book as a ldquocritique of American industrial capitalismrdquo (Parker 1994) Such interpretations may not have been con-trary to Soviet ideology but by the 1980s they were challenged notably by William R Leach who rather saw Baumrsquos work as a celebration of the ldquourban consumer culture of the turn of the centuryrdquo helping to ldquomake people feel at home in Amer-icarsquos new industrial economyrdquo and to ldquoappreciate and enjoy without guilt the new consumer abundance and way of living produced by that economyrdquo (quoted in Parker 1994) Parkerrsquos conclusion is that there was no factual basis for asserting that Baum wrote his book as a populist allegory mdash but equally that it could be read as an allegory of the silver movement during which time silver became a symbol of economic justice for the American people not long before The Wizard of Oz was written It is hard to avoid the significance of the silver slippers which hold a potent power and which are eventually revealed as able to take their wearer wher-ever she wishes to go The silver slippers are retained in Volkovrsquos work although it is unlikely that Russian readers would have been aware of the significance or the details of the Free Silver Movement

In his introduction Baum states that the story was written solely ldquoto pleasure childrenrdquo aspiring to be a ldquomodernized fairy tale in which the wonderment and

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 85

joy are retained and the heart-ache and nightmares are left outrdquo Even if Parkerrsquos comment that the story ldquoshowed American society and culture in all its wonderful diversity and contradictionsrdquo is true (1994) these are not the details that Volkov omits In both Baumrsquos and Volkovrsquos work Dorothy and Elliersquos first night spent with the Munchkins is characterised by an abundance of good food and in Volkovrsquos tale ldquoa huge number of pastries were eaten and an immeasurable quantity of soft drinks consumedrdquo (Volkov 1992 24)10 whereas such excesses are not referred to in Baumrsquos story which only mentions that the house ldquowas the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the landrdquo (Baum 30) In both stories too the central mes-sage that the Wizard is a fraud and an impostor albeit benevolent is retained The main changes introduced by Volkov involve the portrayal of the characters in line with the socialist realist requirements that they should display courage decisive-ness and the ability to work in a team Volkov succeeds in turning Baumrsquos undeni-ably insipid characters into deeper and more complex characters with strength-ened personal qualities such as friendship loyalty and steadfastness This overall change is evident from the very beginning of the narrative which in the original opens with a description of the tediousness and drudgery of the everyday life of Dorothyrsquos aunt and uncle Baum emphasises the lack of joy in their lives and the bleakness of the landscape where ldquoeverything was dull and greyrdquo (Baum 1985 14) It was not acceptable however to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s mdash a decade characterised by intense suffering on the part of Russian peasants who were forced into collective farming Volkov removes Dorothyrsquos orphan status and endows his protagonist Ellie with loving and cheer-ful parents called Anna and Farmer John in stark contrast with Baumrsquos Aunt Em who was ldquothin and gaunt and never smiled nowrdquo and Uncle Henry who ldquonever laughedrdquo and ldquodid not know what joy wasrdquo (Baum 1985 14) Volkov places a strong emphasis on his charactersrsquo fortitude and steadfastness whenever a hurricane overturns the small house trailer in which they live John is described as setting it upright again putting the stove and the beds back in place while Ellie collects the scattered pewter plates and other meagre belongings until ldquoeverything would be in order again mdash until the next stormrdquo (Volkov 1992 5)

Besides depicting his characters differently Volkov also made significant changes to the content of the story In line with the Soviet view that misfortune is caused by an external enemy the cyclone is no longer a natural phenomenon but is conjured up by the wicked witch Gingema who replaces the Wicked Witch of the East and who is plotting to destroy humankind (see Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 184) Similarly it is not pure chance that brings the house down on Gingemarsquos head but the work of Villina the Witch of the Yellow Land who is the counterpart of the Witch of the North

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 81

that the translated text should have the same effect on its readers as on the original readers (Leighton 1991 14) This in itself implies extensive domestication of the text to make it more accessible to the new target audience in line with the dictates referred to above

Of course a large part of the censorship that took place was self-imposed by writers and translators who learned to use strategies which would avoid bringing them into conflict with the authorities Bourdieu describes this type of censorship as particularly successful when unconsciously self-imposed by those agents oper-ating in the literary field He writes

Censorship is never quite as perfect or as invisible as when each agent has noth-ing to say apart from what he is objectively authorized to say in this case he does not even have to be his own censor because he is in a way censored once and for all through the forms of perception and expression that he has internalised and which impose their form on all his expressions (Bourdieu 1991 138)

One phenomenon specific to the Russian and Soviet context is known as lsquoAeso-pian languagersquo a term coined by M Saltykov-Shchedrin in the 1860s and a detailed account of which is given by Lev Loseff in his On the Beneficence of Censorship (Loseff 1984) This is an extreme example of the creativity engendered by a liter-ary system governed by institutionalised censorship Aesopian language developed from a particular kind of writing used to imply an ideological attitude or political statement which might otherwise attract the attention of the censors ldquoHints and circumlocutionsrdquo by means of literary devices such as parody were therefore com-mon in many writersrsquo works Loseff likens Aesopian language to the concept of a mode of writing the third element of Barthesrsquos model of language style and writ-ing influenced by historical and social conditions (Loseff 1984 6ndash7) Such a mode of writing can be seen as forming part of the writerrsquos habitus It was familiar to most Russian writers and translators and was not only used in literature for adults but also for children As indicated above many writers in order to make a living under the stringent conditions of post-revolutionary Russia turned to translation In the 1920s many writers similarly abandoned their primary goal of writing for adults and turned to childrenrsquos literature which allowed the expression of ideas that would have otherwise been prohibited As a result it was often aimed at a dual au-dience Aesopian language was particularly useful as it meant that a work could be read on several levels depending on the readerrsquos knowledge and background For example Kornei Chukovsky regarded as the founder of Russian childrenrsquos litera-ture and a leading Soviet translator and theoretician made extensive use of parody in his works and in this way his books played a significant role in nurturing gener-ations of readers who were accustomed to seeking a subtext in the works they read (Loseff 1984 198) This phenomenon is not directly evident in Volkovrsquos work but it

82 Judith A Inggs

considerably strengthens the argument concerning the creative effect of censorship on the production of literature A I Herzen had highlighted this influence as early as the mid-nineteenth century ldquohellipcensorship is highly conducive to progress in the mastery of style and the ability to restrain onersquos wordsrdquo (quoted in Loseff 1984 11)

Many writers were involved in both translating and writing for children But of course not only the writers and translators were involved in the process and four actors can be identified in the production of translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union the Author the Censor the Translator and the Reader s Each of these agents acted within particular structures or fields which shaped the writing translation and reading of literature often placing sociocultural so-cio-political and institutional constraints on those processes Just as writers were expected to write in line with the tenets of socialist realism translators were also obliged to act and translate in specific ways applying a form of self-censorship within the framework of their own education and knowledge of the world within the restricted lsquofieldrsquo of translation in the Soviet Union Gouanvic speaks of writers in the US in the inter-war period being obliged to ldquoplay the sociocultural game in the American social space treating themes and discourses that conformed to the ambient doxardquo (Gouanvic 2005 153) This is exactly the kind of game (illusio in Bourdieursquos terminology) that was being played in the Soviet Union during the same era mdash for both sets of writers and translators the trick lay in ldquobeing able to find innovative ways around this censorship this is how they made their markrdquo (Gouanvic 2005 153)

Structural censorship in the Soviet Union took place in a particular field de-termined by the habitus of the agents in that field but it was not just as Billiani describes structural censorship ldquoa set of unwritten rules shaped both by the cur-rent habitus and by the symbolic capital a text enjoys in a certain fieldrdquo (Billiani 2007 8) In the Soviet Union there were also institutional written rules alongside the unwritten ones shaped by the various agents involved and also by Communist Party policy Literary texts not only existed in the artistic field but also in the po-litical field where they were regarded as words on paper rather than works of art (Loseff 1984 5) Thus the relationship between the written and the unwritten rules became a further site for playing a socio-political and ideological game and not only a socio-cultural one

3 Translated Childrenrsquos Literature in the Soviet Union

Foreign childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union can be regarded as a restricted field in that it was translated and published by a specific state publishing house founded by Gorky in 1933 with the express objective of translating the lsquobestrsquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 83

childrenrsquos books from around the world Leninrsquos wife Nadezhda Krupskaia be-lieved that childrenrsquos books were the foundation of the materialist world-view of the next generation (OrsquoDell 1978 53) and that their primary purpose was to instil in children a revolutionary communist ideology As early as 1918 childrenrsquos litera-ture had been singled out as the medium with the greatest potential for implanting ideas most in accord with the desired social development (Starza 1984 28) When socialist realism became the authorised literary genre over the next ten to fifteen years it required that reality be reflected in a positive light doubts and uncertain-ties in the minds of the characters were discouraged and passages of introspec-tion or psychological analysis were regarded as undesirable The central themes of new works were military patriotic and revolutionary in contrast with the main themes of Western writing for children7 As a result a strict selection process was followed to identify works to be translated while many existing translations were removed from circulation Nevertheless in much the same way as Aesopian lan-guage allowed the expression of ideas that would have been unacceptable if stated openly fantasy literature for children also flourished during this period As Maria Nikolajeva explains the restrictive cultural climate in the Soviet Union meant that ldquofor some authors a childrenrsquos book or more precisely a fairy tale or fantastic tale appeared to be the best way to express beliefs that in strictly realistic prose might seem controversial or alien to the official ideologyrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The image of English language childrenrsquos literature was inevitably distorted as a result As contemporary works were the most likely to contain anti-revolution-ary content an image of English-language childrenrsquos literature was constructed which was largely defined by nineteenth century and early twentieth century writ-ers such as Mark Twain Daniel Defoe Robert Louis Stevenson Jack London and William Mayne Reid (Brandis 1980) Works which are considered classic texts of English language childrenrsquos literature such as Peter Pan (1904) and Mary Poppins (1934) only appeared in the late 1960s and The Hobbit (1937) and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) only in the 1970s although the latter two did not receive a great deal of attention at the time (Nikolajeva 1995 106) Anne of Green Gables (1908) was still unknown in the mid 1990s and as late as 1992 Enid Blyton whose works have been translated into over 90 languages was unknown to the librarian in charge of the foreign language section at the largest childrenrsquos library in Moscow (Personal interview 1992)8 At the end of the 1980s calls began to be made by Soviet critics for works to be made available which were well known in-ternationally but virtually unknown in the Soviet Union for example Charlottersquos Web the Tarzan series and works by Blyton and Beatrix Potter (Volrsquope 1989 45) Unfortunately the hunger for previously unavailable works led to wholesale and indiscriminate translations the quality of which was often very poor This was exacerbated by the fact that in the early 1990s for the first time in fifty or sixty

84 Judith A Inggs

years publishers were required to become self-sufficient and profitable often set-ting prices far above a reasonable level For example in 1989 Volkovrsquos The Wizard of the Emerald City was on sale in Moscow for a price twice the average monthly income (Nikolajeva 1995 108)

32 The Example of The Wizard of Oz

The reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation are unclear but the changes made in Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City provide some indication Adaptations during the Soviet period highlighted those values which were preva-lent in original literature written for children a sense of comradeship rather than personal enrichment hard work and loyalty to society rather than individualistic gain Maria Nikolajeva notes that

[t]he focus in many of the adaptations shifted from the attainment of wealth or other personal benefits (such as Pinocchiorsquos longing to become a human boy) toward social improvements collective happiness freedom equality and other empty slogans of official Soviet culture (1995 106)9

Baumrsquos own Wizard of Oz generally attracted the attention of economists rather than literary critics In 1964 Henry Littlefield argued that Baumrsquos work was a ldquopar-able on populismrdquo and drew analogies with contemporary economic and political issues (Parker 1994) In 1990 Hugh Rockoff presented the story as a monetary allegory These and other scholars interpreted the book as a ldquocritique of American industrial capitalismrdquo (Parker 1994) Such interpretations may not have been con-trary to Soviet ideology but by the 1980s they were challenged notably by William R Leach who rather saw Baumrsquos work as a celebration of the ldquourban consumer culture of the turn of the centuryrdquo helping to ldquomake people feel at home in Amer-icarsquos new industrial economyrdquo and to ldquoappreciate and enjoy without guilt the new consumer abundance and way of living produced by that economyrdquo (quoted in Parker 1994) Parkerrsquos conclusion is that there was no factual basis for asserting that Baum wrote his book as a populist allegory mdash but equally that it could be read as an allegory of the silver movement during which time silver became a symbol of economic justice for the American people not long before The Wizard of Oz was written It is hard to avoid the significance of the silver slippers which hold a potent power and which are eventually revealed as able to take their wearer wher-ever she wishes to go The silver slippers are retained in Volkovrsquos work although it is unlikely that Russian readers would have been aware of the significance or the details of the Free Silver Movement

In his introduction Baum states that the story was written solely ldquoto pleasure childrenrdquo aspiring to be a ldquomodernized fairy tale in which the wonderment and

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 85

joy are retained and the heart-ache and nightmares are left outrdquo Even if Parkerrsquos comment that the story ldquoshowed American society and culture in all its wonderful diversity and contradictionsrdquo is true (1994) these are not the details that Volkov omits In both Baumrsquos and Volkovrsquos work Dorothy and Elliersquos first night spent with the Munchkins is characterised by an abundance of good food and in Volkovrsquos tale ldquoa huge number of pastries were eaten and an immeasurable quantity of soft drinks consumedrdquo (Volkov 1992 24)10 whereas such excesses are not referred to in Baumrsquos story which only mentions that the house ldquowas the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the landrdquo (Baum 30) In both stories too the central mes-sage that the Wizard is a fraud and an impostor albeit benevolent is retained The main changes introduced by Volkov involve the portrayal of the characters in line with the socialist realist requirements that they should display courage decisive-ness and the ability to work in a team Volkov succeeds in turning Baumrsquos undeni-ably insipid characters into deeper and more complex characters with strength-ened personal qualities such as friendship loyalty and steadfastness This overall change is evident from the very beginning of the narrative which in the original opens with a description of the tediousness and drudgery of the everyday life of Dorothyrsquos aunt and uncle Baum emphasises the lack of joy in their lives and the bleakness of the landscape where ldquoeverything was dull and greyrdquo (Baum 1985 14) It was not acceptable however to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s mdash a decade characterised by intense suffering on the part of Russian peasants who were forced into collective farming Volkov removes Dorothyrsquos orphan status and endows his protagonist Ellie with loving and cheer-ful parents called Anna and Farmer John in stark contrast with Baumrsquos Aunt Em who was ldquothin and gaunt and never smiled nowrdquo and Uncle Henry who ldquonever laughedrdquo and ldquodid not know what joy wasrdquo (Baum 1985 14) Volkov places a strong emphasis on his charactersrsquo fortitude and steadfastness whenever a hurricane overturns the small house trailer in which they live John is described as setting it upright again putting the stove and the beds back in place while Ellie collects the scattered pewter plates and other meagre belongings until ldquoeverything would be in order again mdash until the next stormrdquo (Volkov 1992 5)

Besides depicting his characters differently Volkov also made significant changes to the content of the story In line with the Soviet view that misfortune is caused by an external enemy the cyclone is no longer a natural phenomenon but is conjured up by the wicked witch Gingema who replaces the Wicked Witch of the East and who is plotting to destroy humankind (see Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 184) Similarly it is not pure chance that brings the house down on Gingemarsquos head but the work of Villina the Witch of the Yellow Land who is the counterpart of the Witch of the North

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

82 Judith A Inggs

considerably strengthens the argument concerning the creative effect of censorship on the production of literature A I Herzen had highlighted this influence as early as the mid-nineteenth century ldquohellipcensorship is highly conducive to progress in the mastery of style and the ability to restrain onersquos wordsrdquo (quoted in Loseff 1984 11)

Many writers were involved in both translating and writing for children But of course not only the writers and translators were involved in the process and four actors can be identified in the production of translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union the Author the Censor the Translator and the Reader s Each of these agents acted within particular structures or fields which shaped the writing translation and reading of literature often placing sociocultural so-cio-political and institutional constraints on those processes Just as writers were expected to write in line with the tenets of socialist realism translators were also obliged to act and translate in specific ways applying a form of self-censorship within the framework of their own education and knowledge of the world within the restricted lsquofieldrsquo of translation in the Soviet Union Gouanvic speaks of writers in the US in the inter-war period being obliged to ldquoplay the sociocultural game in the American social space treating themes and discourses that conformed to the ambient doxardquo (Gouanvic 2005 153) This is exactly the kind of game (illusio in Bourdieursquos terminology) that was being played in the Soviet Union during the same era mdash for both sets of writers and translators the trick lay in ldquobeing able to find innovative ways around this censorship this is how they made their markrdquo (Gouanvic 2005 153)

Structural censorship in the Soviet Union took place in a particular field de-termined by the habitus of the agents in that field but it was not just as Billiani describes structural censorship ldquoa set of unwritten rules shaped both by the cur-rent habitus and by the symbolic capital a text enjoys in a certain fieldrdquo (Billiani 2007 8) In the Soviet Union there were also institutional written rules alongside the unwritten ones shaped by the various agents involved and also by Communist Party policy Literary texts not only existed in the artistic field but also in the po-litical field where they were regarded as words on paper rather than works of art (Loseff 1984 5) Thus the relationship between the written and the unwritten rules became a further site for playing a socio-political and ideological game and not only a socio-cultural one

3 Translated Childrenrsquos Literature in the Soviet Union

Foreign childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union can be regarded as a restricted field in that it was translated and published by a specific state publishing house founded by Gorky in 1933 with the express objective of translating the lsquobestrsquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 83

childrenrsquos books from around the world Leninrsquos wife Nadezhda Krupskaia be-lieved that childrenrsquos books were the foundation of the materialist world-view of the next generation (OrsquoDell 1978 53) and that their primary purpose was to instil in children a revolutionary communist ideology As early as 1918 childrenrsquos litera-ture had been singled out as the medium with the greatest potential for implanting ideas most in accord with the desired social development (Starza 1984 28) When socialist realism became the authorised literary genre over the next ten to fifteen years it required that reality be reflected in a positive light doubts and uncertain-ties in the minds of the characters were discouraged and passages of introspec-tion or psychological analysis were regarded as undesirable The central themes of new works were military patriotic and revolutionary in contrast with the main themes of Western writing for children7 As a result a strict selection process was followed to identify works to be translated while many existing translations were removed from circulation Nevertheless in much the same way as Aesopian lan-guage allowed the expression of ideas that would have been unacceptable if stated openly fantasy literature for children also flourished during this period As Maria Nikolajeva explains the restrictive cultural climate in the Soviet Union meant that ldquofor some authors a childrenrsquos book or more precisely a fairy tale or fantastic tale appeared to be the best way to express beliefs that in strictly realistic prose might seem controversial or alien to the official ideologyrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The image of English language childrenrsquos literature was inevitably distorted as a result As contemporary works were the most likely to contain anti-revolution-ary content an image of English-language childrenrsquos literature was constructed which was largely defined by nineteenth century and early twentieth century writ-ers such as Mark Twain Daniel Defoe Robert Louis Stevenson Jack London and William Mayne Reid (Brandis 1980) Works which are considered classic texts of English language childrenrsquos literature such as Peter Pan (1904) and Mary Poppins (1934) only appeared in the late 1960s and The Hobbit (1937) and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) only in the 1970s although the latter two did not receive a great deal of attention at the time (Nikolajeva 1995 106) Anne of Green Gables (1908) was still unknown in the mid 1990s and as late as 1992 Enid Blyton whose works have been translated into over 90 languages was unknown to the librarian in charge of the foreign language section at the largest childrenrsquos library in Moscow (Personal interview 1992)8 At the end of the 1980s calls began to be made by Soviet critics for works to be made available which were well known in-ternationally but virtually unknown in the Soviet Union for example Charlottersquos Web the Tarzan series and works by Blyton and Beatrix Potter (Volrsquope 1989 45) Unfortunately the hunger for previously unavailable works led to wholesale and indiscriminate translations the quality of which was often very poor This was exacerbated by the fact that in the early 1990s for the first time in fifty or sixty

84 Judith A Inggs

years publishers were required to become self-sufficient and profitable often set-ting prices far above a reasonable level For example in 1989 Volkovrsquos The Wizard of the Emerald City was on sale in Moscow for a price twice the average monthly income (Nikolajeva 1995 108)

32 The Example of The Wizard of Oz

The reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation are unclear but the changes made in Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City provide some indication Adaptations during the Soviet period highlighted those values which were preva-lent in original literature written for children a sense of comradeship rather than personal enrichment hard work and loyalty to society rather than individualistic gain Maria Nikolajeva notes that

[t]he focus in many of the adaptations shifted from the attainment of wealth or other personal benefits (such as Pinocchiorsquos longing to become a human boy) toward social improvements collective happiness freedom equality and other empty slogans of official Soviet culture (1995 106)9

Baumrsquos own Wizard of Oz generally attracted the attention of economists rather than literary critics In 1964 Henry Littlefield argued that Baumrsquos work was a ldquopar-able on populismrdquo and drew analogies with contemporary economic and political issues (Parker 1994) In 1990 Hugh Rockoff presented the story as a monetary allegory These and other scholars interpreted the book as a ldquocritique of American industrial capitalismrdquo (Parker 1994) Such interpretations may not have been con-trary to Soviet ideology but by the 1980s they were challenged notably by William R Leach who rather saw Baumrsquos work as a celebration of the ldquourban consumer culture of the turn of the centuryrdquo helping to ldquomake people feel at home in Amer-icarsquos new industrial economyrdquo and to ldquoappreciate and enjoy without guilt the new consumer abundance and way of living produced by that economyrdquo (quoted in Parker 1994) Parkerrsquos conclusion is that there was no factual basis for asserting that Baum wrote his book as a populist allegory mdash but equally that it could be read as an allegory of the silver movement during which time silver became a symbol of economic justice for the American people not long before The Wizard of Oz was written It is hard to avoid the significance of the silver slippers which hold a potent power and which are eventually revealed as able to take their wearer wher-ever she wishes to go The silver slippers are retained in Volkovrsquos work although it is unlikely that Russian readers would have been aware of the significance or the details of the Free Silver Movement

In his introduction Baum states that the story was written solely ldquoto pleasure childrenrdquo aspiring to be a ldquomodernized fairy tale in which the wonderment and

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 85

joy are retained and the heart-ache and nightmares are left outrdquo Even if Parkerrsquos comment that the story ldquoshowed American society and culture in all its wonderful diversity and contradictionsrdquo is true (1994) these are not the details that Volkov omits In both Baumrsquos and Volkovrsquos work Dorothy and Elliersquos first night spent with the Munchkins is characterised by an abundance of good food and in Volkovrsquos tale ldquoa huge number of pastries were eaten and an immeasurable quantity of soft drinks consumedrdquo (Volkov 1992 24)10 whereas such excesses are not referred to in Baumrsquos story which only mentions that the house ldquowas the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the landrdquo (Baum 30) In both stories too the central mes-sage that the Wizard is a fraud and an impostor albeit benevolent is retained The main changes introduced by Volkov involve the portrayal of the characters in line with the socialist realist requirements that they should display courage decisive-ness and the ability to work in a team Volkov succeeds in turning Baumrsquos undeni-ably insipid characters into deeper and more complex characters with strength-ened personal qualities such as friendship loyalty and steadfastness This overall change is evident from the very beginning of the narrative which in the original opens with a description of the tediousness and drudgery of the everyday life of Dorothyrsquos aunt and uncle Baum emphasises the lack of joy in their lives and the bleakness of the landscape where ldquoeverything was dull and greyrdquo (Baum 1985 14) It was not acceptable however to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s mdash a decade characterised by intense suffering on the part of Russian peasants who were forced into collective farming Volkov removes Dorothyrsquos orphan status and endows his protagonist Ellie with loving and cheer-ful parents called Anna and Farmer John in stark contrast with Baumrsquos Aunt Em who was ldquothin and gaunt and never smiled nowrdquo and Uncle Henry who ldquonever laughedrdquo and ldquodid not know what joy wasrdquo (Baum 1985 14) Volkov places a strong emphasis on his charactersrsquo fortitude and steadfastness whenever a hurricane overturns the small house trailer in which they live John is described as setting it upright again putting the stove and the beds back in place while Ellie collects the scattered pewter plates and other meagre belongings until ldquoeverything would be in order again mdash until the next stormrdquo (Volkov 1992 5)

Besides depicting his characters differently Volkov also made significant changes to the content of the story In line with the Soviet view that misfortune is caused by an external enemy the cyclone is no longer a natural phenomenon but is conjured up by the wicked witch Gingema who replaces the Wicked Witch of the East and who is plotting to destroy humankind (see Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 184) Similarly it is not pure chance that brings the house down on Gingemarsquos head but the work of Villina the Witch of the Yellow Land who is the counterpart of the Witch of the North

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 83

childrenrsquos books from around the world Leninrsquos wife Nadezhda Krupskaia be-lieved that childrenrsquos books were the foundation of the materialist world-view of the next generation (OrsquoDell 1978 53) and that their primary purpose was to instil in children a revolutionary communist ideology As early as 1918 childrenrsquos litera-ture had been singled out as the medium with the greatest potential for implanting ideas most in accord with the desired social development (Starza 1984 28) When socialist realism became the authorised literary genre over the next ten to fifteen years it required that reality be reflected in a positive light doubts and uncertain-ties in the minds of the characters were discouraged and passages of introspec-tion or psychological analysis were regarded as undesirable The central themes of new works were military patriotic and revolutionary in contrast with the main themes of Western writing for children7 As a result a strict selection process was followed to identify works to be translated while many existing translations were removed from circulation Nevertheless in much the same way as Aesopian lan-guage allowed the expression of ideas that would have been unacceptable if stated openly fantasy literature for children also flourished during this period As Maria Nikolajeva explains the restrictive cultural climate in the Soviet Union meant that ldquofor some authors a childrenrsquos book or more precisely a fairy tale or fantastic tale appeared to be the best way to express beliefs that in strictly realistic prose might seem controversial or alien to the official ideologyrdquo (Nikolajeva 1995 106)

The image of English language childrenrsquos literature was inevitably distorted as a result As contemporary works were the most likely to contain anti-revolution-ary content an image of English-language childrenrsquos literature was constructed which was largely defined by nineteenth century and early twentieth century writ-ers such as Mark Twain Daniel Defoe Robert Louis Stevenson Jack London and William Mayne Reid (Brandis 1980) Works which are considered classic texts of English language childrenrsquos literature such as Peter Pan (1904) and Mary Poppins (1934) only appeared in the late 1960s and The Hobbit (1937) and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) only in the 1970s although the latter two did not receive a great deal of attention at the time (Nikolajeva 1995 106) Anne of Green Gables (1908) was still unknown in the mid 1990s and as late as 1992 Enid Blyton whose works have been translated into over 90 languages was unknown to the librarian in charge of the foreign language section at the largest childrenrsquos library in Moscow (Personal interview 1992)8 At the end of the 1980s calls began to be made by Soviet critics for works to be made available which were well known in-ternationally but virtually unknown in the Soviet Union for example Charlottersquos Web the Tarzan series and works by Blyton and Beatrix Potter (Volrsquope 1989 45) Unfortunately the hunger for previously unavailable works led to wholesale and indiscriminate translations the quality of which was often very poor This was exacerbated by the fact that in the early 1990s for the first time in fifty or sixty

84 Judith A Inggs

years publishers were required to become self-sufficient and profitable often set-ting prices far above a reasonable level For example in 1989 Volkovrsquos The Wizard of the Emerald City was on sale in Moscow for a price twice the average monthly income (Nikolajeva 1995 108)

32 The Example of The Wizard of Oz

The reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation are unclear but the changes made in Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City provide some indication Adaptations during the Soviet period highlighted those values which were preva-lent in original literature written for children a sense of comradeship rather than personal enrichment hard work and loyalty to society rather than individualistic gain Maria Nikolajeva notes that

[t]he focus in many of the adaptations shifted from the attainment of wealth or other personal benefits (such as Pinocchiorsquos longing to become a human boy) toward social improvements collective happiness freedom equality and other empty slogans of official Soviet culture (1995 106)9

Baumrsquos own Wizard of Oz generally attracted the attention of economists rather than literary critics In 1964 Henry Littlefield argued that Baumrsquos work was a ldquopar-able on populismrdquo and drew analogies with contemporary economic and political issues (Parker 1994) In 1990 Hugh Rockoff presented the story as a monetary allegory These and other scholars interpreted the book as a ldquocritique of American industrial capitalismrdquo (Parker 1994) Such interpretations may not have been con-trary to Soviet ideology but by the 1980s they were challenged notably by William R Leach who rather saw Baumrsquos work as a celebration of the ldquourban consumer culture of the turn of the centuryrdquo helping to ldquomake people feel at home in Amer-icarsquos new industrial economyrdquo and to ldquoappreciate and enjoy without guilt the new consumer abundance and way of living produced by that economyrdquo (quoted in Parker 1994) Parkerrsquos conclusion is that there was no factual basis for asserting that Baum wrote his book as a populist allegory mdash but equally that it could be read as an allegory of the silver movement during which time silver became a symbol of economic justice for the American people not long before The Wizard of Oz was written It is hard to avoid the significance of the silver slippers which hold a potent power and which are eventually revealed as able to take their wearer wher-ever she wishes to go The silver slippers are retained in Volkovrsquos work although it is unlikely that Russian readers would have been aware of the significance or the details of the Free Silver Movement

In his introduction Baum states that the story was written solely ldquoto pleasure childrenrdquo aspiring to be a ldquomodernized fairy tale in which the wonderment and

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 85

joy are retained and the heart-ache and nightmares are left outrdquo Even if Parkerrsquos comment that the story ldquoshowed American society and culture in all its wonderful diversity and contradictionsrdquo is true (1994) these are not the details that Volkov omits In both Baumrsquos and Volkovrsquos work Dorothy and Elliersquos first night spent with the Munchkins is characterised by an abundance of good food and in Volkovrsquos tale ldquoa huge number of pastries were eaten and an immeasurable quantity of soft drinks consumedrdquo (Volkov 1992 24)10 whereas such excesses are not referred to in Baumrsquos story which only mentions that the house ldquowas the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the landrdquo (Baum 30) In both stories too the central mes-sage that the Wizard is a fraud and an impostor albeit benevolent is retained The main changes introduced by Volkov involve the portrayal of the characters in line with the socialist realist requirements that they should display courage decisive-ness and the ability to work in a team Volkov succeeds in turning Baumrsquos undeni-ably insipid characters into deeper and more complex characters with strength-ened personal qualities such as friendship loyalty and steadfastness This overall change is evident from the very beginning of the narrative which in the original opens with a description of the tediousness and drudgery of the everyday life of Dorothyrsquos aunt and uncle Baum emphasises the lack of joy in their lives and the bleakness of the landscape where ldquoeverything was dull and greyrdquo (Baum 1985 14) It was not acceptable however to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s mdash a decade characterised by intense suffering on the part of Russian peasants who were forced into collective farming Volkov removes Dorothyrsquos orphan status and endows his protagonist Ellie with loving and cheer-ful parents called Anna and Farmer John in stark contrast with Baumrsquos Aunt Em who was ldquothin and gaunt and never smiled nowrdquo and Uncle Henry who ldquonever laughedrdquo and ldquodid not know what joy wasrdquo (Baum 1985 14) Volkov places a strong emphasis on his charactersrsquo fortitude and steadfastness whenever a hurricane overturns the small house trailer in which they live John is described as setting it upright again putting the stove and the beds back in place while Ellie collects the scattered pewter plates and other meagre belongings until ldquoeverything would be in order again mdash until the next stormrdquo (Volkov 1992 5)

Besides depicting his characters differently Volkov also made significant changes to the content of the story In line with the Soviet view that misfortune is caused by an external enemy the cyclone is no longer a natural phenomenon but is conjured up by the wicked witch Gingema who replaces the Wicked Witch of the East and who is plotting to destroy humankind (see Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 184) Similarly it is not pure chance that brings the house down on Gingemarsquos head but the work of Villina the Witch of the Yellow Land who is the counterpart of the Witch of the North

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

84 Judith A Inggs

years publishers were required to become self-sufficient and profitable often set-ting prices far above a reasonable level For example in 1989 Volkovrsquos The Wizard of the Emerald City was on sale in Moscow for a price twice the average monthly income (Nikolajeva 1995 108)

32 The Example of The Wizard of Oz

The reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation are unclear but the changes made in Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City provide some indication Adaptations during the Soviet period highlighted those values which were preva-lent in original literature written for children a sense of comradeship rather than personal enrichment hard work and loyalty to society rather than individualistic gain Maria Nikolajeva notes that

[t]he focus in many of the adaptations shifted from the attainment of wealth or other personal benefits (such as Pinocchiorsquos longing to become a human boy) toward social improvements collective happiness freedom equality and other empty slogans of official Soviet culture (1995 106)9

Baumrsquos own Wizard of Oz generally attracted the attention of economists rather than literary critics In 1964 Henry Littlefield argued that Baumrsquos work was a ldquopar-able on populismrdquo and drew analogies with contemporary economic and political issues (Parker 1994) In 1990 Hugh Rockoff presented the story as a monetary allegory These and other scholars interpreted the book as a ldquocritique of American industrial capitalismrdquo (Parker 1994) Such interpretations may not have been con-trary to Soviet ideology but by the 1980s they were challenged notably by William R Leach who rather saw Baumrsquos work as a celebration of the ldquourban consumer culture of the turn of the centuryrdquo helping to ldquomake people feel at home in Amer-icarsquos new industrial economyrdquo and to ldquoappreciate and enjoy without guilt the new consumer abundance and way of living produced by that economyrdquo (quoted in Parker 1994) Parkerrsquos conclusion is that there was no factual basis for asserting that Baum wrote his book as a populist allegory mdash but equally that it could be read as an allegory of the silver movement during which time silver became a symbol of economic justice for the American people not long before The Wizard of Oz was written It is hard to avoid the significance of the silver slippers which hold a potent power and which are eventually revealed as able to take their wearer wher-ever she wishes to go The silver slippers are retained in Volkovrsquos work although it is unlikely that Russian readers would have been aware of the significance or the details of the Free Silver Movement

In his introduction Baum states that the story was written solely ldquoto pleasure childrenrdquo aspiring to be a ldquomodernized fairy tale in which the wonderment and

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 85

joy are retained and the heart-ache and nightmares are left outrdquo Even if Parkerrsquos comment that the story ldquoshowed American society and culture in all its wonderful diversity and contradictionsrdquo is true (1994) these are not the details that Volkov omits In both Baumrsquos and Volkovrsquos work Dorothy and Elliersquos first night spent with the Munchkins is characterised by an abundance of good food and in Volkovrsquos tale ldquoa huge number of pastries were eaten and an immeasurable quantity of soft drinks consumedrdquo (Volkov 1992 24)10 whereas such excesses are not referred to in Baumrsquos story which only mentions that the house ldquowas the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the landrdquo (Baum 30) In both stories too the central mes-sage that the Wizard is a fraud and an impostor albeit benevolent is retained The main changes introduced by Volkov involve the portrayal of the characters in line with the socialist realist requirements that they should display courage decisive-ness and the ability to work in a team Volkov succeeds in turning Baumrsquos undeni-ably insipid characters into deeper and more complex characters with strength-ened personal qualities such as friendship loyalty and steadfastness This overall change is evident from the very beginning of the narrative which in the original opens with a description of the tediousness and drudgery of the everyday life of Dorothyrsquos aunt and uncle Baum emphasises the lack of joy in their lives and the bleakness of the landscape where ldquoeverything was dull and greyrdquo (Baum 1985 14) It was not acceptable however to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s mdash a decade characterised by intense suffering on the part of Russian peasants who were forced into collective farming Volkov removes Dorothyrsquos orphan status and endows his protagonist Ellie with loving and cheer-ful parents called Anna and Farmer John in stark contrast with Baumrsquos Aunt Em who was ldquothin and gaunt and never smiled nowrdquo and Uncle Henry who ldquonever laughedrdquo and ldquodid not know what joy wasrdquo (Baum 1985 14) Volkov places a strong emphasis on his charactersrsquo fortitude and steadfastness whenever a hurricane overturns the small house trailer in which they live John is described as setting it upright again putting the stove and the beds back in place while Ellie collects the scattered pewter plates and other meagre belongings until ldquoeverything would be in order again mdash until the next stormrdquo (Volkov 1992 5)

Besides depicting his characters differently Volkov also made significant changes to the content of the story In line with the Soviet view that misfortune is caused by an external enemy the cyclone is no longer a natural phenomenon but is conjured up by the wicked witch Gingema who replaces the Wicked Witch of the East and who is plotting to destroy humankind (see Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 184) Similarly it is not pure chance that brings the house down on Gingemarsquos head but the work of Villina the Witch of the Yellow Land who is the counterpart of the Witch of the North

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 85

joy are retained and the heart-ache and nightmares are left outrdquo Even if Parkerrsquos comment that the story ldquoshowed American society and culture in all its wonderful diversity and contradictionsrdquo is true (1994) these are not the details that Volkov omits In both Baumrsquos and Volkovrsquos work Dorothy and Elliersquos first night spent with the Munchkins is characterised by an abundance of good food and in Volkovrsquos tale ldquoa huge number of pastries were eaten and an immeasurable quantity of soft drinks consumedrdquo (Volkov 1992 24)10 whereas such excesses are not referred to in Baumrsquos story which only mentions that the house ldquowas the home of one of the richest Munchkins in the landrdquo (Baum 30) In both stories too the central mes-sage that the Wizard is a fraud and an impostor albeit benevolent is retained The main changes introduced by Volkov involve the portrayal of the characters in line with the socialist realist requirements that they should display courage decisive-ness and the ability to work in a team Volkov succeeds in turning Baumrsquos undeni-ably insipid characters into deeper and more complex characters with strength-ened personal qualities such as friendship loyalty and steadfastness This overall change is evident from the very beginning of the narrative which in the original opens with a description of the tediousness and drudgery of the everyday life of Dorothyrsquos aunt and uncle Baum emphasises the lack of joy in their lives and the bleakness of the landscape where ldquoeverything was dull and greyrdquo (Baum 1985 14) It was not acceptable however to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s mdash a decade characterised by intense suffering on the part of Russian peasants who were forced into collective farming Volkov removes Dorothyrsquos orphan status and endows his protagonist Ellie with loving and cheer-ful parents called Anna and Farmer John in stark contrast with Baumrsquos Aunt Em who was ldquothin and gaunt and never smiled nowrdquo and Uncle Henry who ldquonever laughedrdquo and ldquodid not know what joy wasrdquo (Baum 1985 14) Volkov places a strong emphasis on his charactersrsquo fortitude and steadfastness whenever a hurricane overturns the small house trailer in which they live John is described as setting it upright again putting the stove and the beds back in place while Ellie collects the scattered pewter plates and other meagre belongings until ldquoeverything would be in order again mdash until the next stormrdquo (Volkov 1992 5)

Besides depicting his characters differently Volkov also made significant changes to the content of the story In line with the Soviet view that misfortune is caused by an external enemy the cyclone is no longer a natural phenomenon but is conjured up by the wicked witch Gingema who replaces the Wicked Witch of the East and who is plotting to destroy humankind (see Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 184) Similarly it is not pure chance that brings the house down on Gingemarsquos head but the work of Villina the Witch of the Yellow Land who is the counterpart of the Witch of the North

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

86 Judith A Inggs

Dorothy helps her three friends encountered by chance on her journey out of the goodness of her heart In contrast Ellie is instructed by Villina who consults the Magic Book an external source of instructions to appeal to the Wonderful Wizard Goodwin (or Gudvin in transliteration) for help in the hope that he will help to send her home if she helps three beings to fulfil their greatest desires Thus Dorothy now has an ulterior motive when she offers to help mdash in contrast to what might be viewed as a Christian sense of selflessness in Baumrsquos story and yet also seemingly at odds with the positive heroine of socialist realist literature Dorothy a relatively resilient character despite her rather shallow portrayal in Baumrsquos work takes on a much more vulnerable persona in the form of Volkovrsquos Ellie who is much more exposed to and potentially a victim of external forces This vulner-ability is reinforced by Volkovrsquos introduction of several more frightening natural and evil phenomena in his adaptation including man-eating ogres and terrible floods Ellie is also often depicted as making fundamental errors of judgement She falls prey to the man-eating ogre directly because of her flagrant disregard of the advice in the Magic Book when she is duped into believing a sign which says ldquoAround the bend in the road all your wishes will be fulfilledrdquo (Volkov 41) The consequences of disobedience are made quite clear Elliersquos foolishness equates to gullibility and weakness further evidenced by the fact that she bursts into tears and begs the giant for mercy (Volkov 44)

Soviet critics would later praise Volkovrsquos version for having a deeper ldquosocial resonancerdquo (Brandis 1980 216) This is chiefly reflected in Volkovrsquos more devel-oped characters and the additional trials and tribulations that they undergo pro-viding greater opportunities for demonstrating their friendship loyalty and resil-ience In the 1990s Russian critics suggested that the success and popularity of Volkovrsquos Wizard of the Emerald City and its sequels was a result of the values and attitudes Volkov promoted mdash courage strength resourcefulness kindness loy-alty fantasy and humour (Khristenko 1991 121) These qualities are specifically heightened in Volkovrsquos tale including a strong emphasis on the role of comrade-ship As Brandis comments ldquo[i]t is the intelligent and courageous person who is a true friend who possesses the magical power of victory without true comradeship the forces of evil cannot be overcomerdquo (1991 121)

There is an element of moralising didacticism in Volkovrsquos version which is not evident in The Wizard of Oz In the 1960s Volkov wrote in an afterword ldquoI reduced the book considerably squeezed all the water out exterminated the nar-row-minded morals typical of Anglo-Saxon literature wrote new chapters and introduced new heroesrdquo (cited in Mitrokhina 1996ndash7 183) The narrow-minded morals to which he refers are not easily found however and in fact the morals of the two stories are very similar although Volkov did indeed introduce new characters and new adventures such as the escape from the ldquosaber-toothed tigersrdquo

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 87

(Volkov 54ndash62) and the flood which leaves them stranded and prompts Strasheela to pronounce that when back in the Emerald City he will ldquopass a law prohibiting rainrdquo (Volkov 153) In a later Afterword Volkov again emphasised the impor-tance of friendship and mutual help ldquoIt was these things that helped Ellie and her friends escape danger in Magic Land and to achieve fulfilment of their fondest wishesrdquo (Volkov in Blystone 1991 146) This is true of the lsquofirstrsquo text too but the emphasis on these qualities is considerably strengthened in Volkovrsquos derived text A notable example is the episode in which Scarecrow finds himself stranded on a pole in the middle of the river (Baum 67ndash71) When the remainder of the party reach the shore they seem resigned to Scarecrowrsquos fate ldquo lsquoWhat shall we do nowrsquo asked the Tin Woodman as the Lion lay down on the grass to let the sun dry himrdquo Dorothy rather pragmatically responds ldquoWe must get back to the road in some wayrdquo (69) and when they happen to see the Scarecrow on their way back to road they gaze ldquowistfullyrdquo at him (69) with no apparent plan until the Stork flies by and helps them rescue him In contrast in Volkovrsquos version Ellie shows considerable resourcefulness and when Lion asks where they should go now she does not hesi-tate ldquoBack there to where our friend is We canrsquot just leave here without rescuing our dear friend Strasheelardquo (64) They prove themselves far more proactive than Baumrsquos rather pathetic little group and come up with several ideas until Lion re-solves that the best option is for him to swim out and fetch him despite the danger that the current might take him off course The Stork arrives just in time however and picks up where Baumrsquos novel left off

A further addition again accounted for by adjustments in accordance with Soviet ideology is found in the scene which depicts Ellie as a revolutionary activ-ist Volkov himself commented that both his world and Baumrsquos were ldquovery similar to the capitalist world familiar to the writer where the prosperity of the major-ity is built on the exploitation and deception of the majorityrdquo (quoted in Bran-dis 1980 216ndash217) There is no attempt to unseat Goodwin who eventually sails off in his hot-air balloon but he is not much mourned by the people of Volkovrsquos Emerald City whereas Baumrsquos followers of Oz ldquowould not be comfortedrdquo (155) However when Ellie and her friends are captured by the Wicked Witch of the East Bastinda who rules over the Miguni keeping them captive Ellie tries to instigate an uprising ldquoThere are so many of you thousands of you but you are afraid of one wicked old woman You could all attack her tie her up and put her in the iron cage there where Lion is nowrdquo (Volkov 110) In the lsquofirstrsquo version Dorothy passively accepts her lot and sees no way out of captivity ldquoSometimes she would cry bitterly for hoursrdquo and although Baum tells the reader that the Witch has a great fear of water and never ldquolet water touch her in any wayrdquo he gives no indication that his protagonist has noted the significance of this (Baum 1985 117) Ellie in contrast notices this fear of water from her first days of captivity and regularly ldquoused it to

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

88 Judith A Inggs

her advantagerdquo pouring several bucketfuls of water on the kitchen floor before going outside to rest in the cage where Lion was locked up ldquoBastinda screeched and cursed from behind the door but if she looked into the kitchen and saw the puddles on the floor she would run away in terror to her bedroomrdquo (Volkov 110)

Using techniques of infiltration Ellie plants doubt into the mind of Fregoza the cook who comes to suspect that Bastinda is uncertain of the strength of her powers a suspicion that is confirmed when Fregoza eavesdrops on Bastindarsquos mut-terings Making use of an insider to incite rebellion Ellie and her friends decide that Fregoza should instigate the move to overthrow Bastinda but before this hap-pens Baumrsquos story takes over the narrative once again and the WitchBastinda melts away after DorothyEllie douses her with a bucket of water in anger after she steals one of the silver shoes This incident is consistent with the reposition-ing of the story in a different ideological context in a different field and involving different agents and represents a further example of the creativity instigated by a process of censorship and adaptation

4 Conclusion

This article set out to show that processes of literary translation and censorship in the Soviet Union worked together and were shaped by pre-Revolutionary modes of translation and attitudes towards literary translation In a tradition of loose translation and rewriting reinforced by institutionalised censorship it was per-fectly acceptable to appropriate ldquofirst textsrdquo and make them into secondary ldquofirst textsrdquo in the target language and literary system This process was even more ac-ceptable in the context of childrenrsquos literature often deemed to have a lower status than so-called serious adult fiction The Soviet example of The Wizard of the Emer-ald City is one illustration of how social political and cultural forces operated on the translation production and circulation of a story As stated above the reasons for the rejection of Volkovrsquos initial translation appear to be undocumented and unclear Whether or not the rejection is fact without the established tradition of appropriating first texts and without the inspiration of L Frank Baumrsquos novel The Wizard of the Emerald City would not have been written As in the development of Aesopian language censorship proved to be both a repressive and creative force operating in the literary system Works which were prohibited paved the way for the creation of other works inspired by those that had been suppressed Thus as Foucault observed one effect of the control exercised by censorship was to pro-duce further discourses (Foucault 1978 17ndash18) There was no sanction on taking over another authorrsquos work and the absence of any signed copyright agreement suited both the authorities and the translators who were obliged to make their

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 89

translations and adaptations conform to the norms of Socialist Realism They were then justified in using and manipulating those norms for their specific purposes Of even more significance is the fact that Volkovrsquos versions and subsequent sto-ries in the series acquired their own symbolic capital the life of which was then extended and prolonged in Blystonersquos translations of those adaptations as Tales of Magic Land

Notes

1 See for example a special issue of The Translator on Bourdieu and the Sociology of Transla-tion and Interpreting (2005)

2 Despite extensive inquiry and corroboration on a verbal level there seems to be no docu-mentary proof of the rejection available

3 For a detailed account of censorship in Soviet literature from 1917 to 1991 see Herman Ermolaev (1997)

4 The total number of books in the series expanded by subsequent writers now stands at 40 (Translatorrsquos Afterword to Volkov 1991 331)

5 Vissarion Belinsky the great 19th century Russian literary critic had earlier advocated dis-tortion with the aim of making the text more accessible to the reader mdash this was picked up on eagerly by Soviet authorities to justify the common practice of adaptation (Friedberg 1997 140)

6 Of course the distortion of Soviet and Russian texts was often just as if not even more de-structive Herman Ermolaev cites the censoring of Virgin Soil Upturned by Mikhail Sholokhov as a ldquocrippling amputationrdquo which left only 55 of the original text (Ermolaev 1997 96)

7 See J V Aspatore The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature PhD Thesis Georgetown University Georgetown 1986 (UMI Dissertaion Information Ser-vice 1989) for a discussion of these themes in Soviet childrenrsquos literature

8 Personal interviews conducted in August and September 1992 in Moscow at the State Chil-drenrsquos Library of the Russian Federation

9 Pinocchio is another example of a work that was adapted and appropriated in this case by Alexey Tolstoy as Adventures of Buratino (1936)

10 All translations from Russian sources including Volshebnik Izymrudnogo goroda are my own unless otherwise stated

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

90 Judith A Inggs

References

Aspatore J V The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks and Childrenrsquos Literature 1986 Unpublished PhDThesis Georgetown Georgetown University (UMI Dissertaion Infor-mation Service 1989)

Baum Frank L 1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz London Chancellor PressBilliani Francesca 2007 ldquoAssessing Boundaries mdash Censorship and Translationrdquo Francesca Bil-

liani ed Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Diverse Media Man-chester St Jerome 1ndash25

Billiani Francesca ed 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation National Contexts and Di-verse Media Manchester St Jerome

Bourdieu Pierre 1991 Language and Symbolic Power Edited by John B Thompson Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson Cambridge Polity Press

Bourdieu Pierre 1998 Practical Reason On the Theory of Action Cambridge Polity PressBrandis Evgenii 1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari Moskva Detskaya LiteraturaErmolaev Herman 1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917ndash1991 Maryland USA Rowman

and LittlefieldFoucault Michel 1978 The History of Sexuality An introduction Vol 1 Translated by Robert

Hurley New York Random HouseFriedberg Maurice 1997 Literary Translation in Russia a cultural history Pennsylvania Penn-

sylvania State University PressGouanvic Jean-Marc 2005 ldquoA Bourdieusian Theory of Translation or the coincidence of prac-

tical instancesrdquo Moira Inghillieri ed Special Issue of The Translator 11 2 147ndash166Inghillieri Moira ed 2005 The Translator Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Inter-

preting Special Issue of The Translator 112Khristenko M A 1991 ldquoPuteshestvie v volshebnuyu stranyrdquo Literatura v shkole 2 121ndash125Leighton Lauren 1991 Two Worlds One Art Literary translation in Russia and America North-

ern Illinois University Press DeKalb IllinoisLittlefield Henry M 1964 ldquoThe Wizard of Oz Parable on Populismrdquo American Quarterly 16

1 47ndash58Loseff Lev 1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Lit-

erature Translated by Jane Bobko Muumlnchen Verlag Otto Sagner in KommissionMitrokhina Xenia 1996ndash7 ldquoThe Land of Oz in the Land of the Sovietsrdquo Childrenrsquos Literature

Association Quarterly 214 183ndash188Nikolajeva Maria 1995 ldquoRussian Childrenrsquos Literature before and after Perestroikardquo Childrenrsquos

Literature Association Quarterly 20 3 105ndash110OrsquoDell Felicity 1978 Socialisation through Childrenrsquos Literature the Soviet example Cambridge

Cambridge University PressParker David 1994 ldquoThe Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Popu-

lismrdquo Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians 15 49ndash63 Available at httpwwwhalcyoncompigletPopulismhtm [Accessed January 2011]

Plamper Jan 2001 ldquoAbolishing Ambiguity Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930srdquo The Rus-sian Review 60 526ndash44

Rockoff Hugh 1990 ldquo lsquoThe lsquoWizard of Ozrsquo as a Monetary AllegoryrdquoJournal of Political Economy 98 4 739ndash760

Censorship and translated childrenrsquos literature in the Soviet Union 91

Sherry Samantha 2010 ldquoCensorship in translation in the Soviet Union The manipulative re-writing of Howard Fastrsquos Novel The Passion of Sacco and Vanzettirdquo Slavonica 16 1 1 ndash14

Starza Arleta 1983 Childrenrsquos Literature in the Soviet Union 1917ndash1934 Unpublished PhD dis-sertation Nottingham University of Nottingham (British Theses Service)

Tax Choldin Marianna 1986 ldquoThe New Censorship Censorship by Translation in the Soviet Unionrdquo The Journal of Library History 21 2 334ndash349

Volkov Alexander 1939 Volshebnik Izumrudnogo Goroda Moskva Dom Rossiiskogo Detskogo Fonda

Volkov Alexander Melentyevich 1991 Tales of Magic Land 1 The Wizard of the Emerald City (Adapted from L Frank Baumrsquos THE WIZARD OF OZ) and Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers Translated from the Russian by Peter L Blystone New York Red Branch Press

Volrsquope М 1989 ldquoStoit li zabyvatrsquo Penrodardquo Detskaya Literatura 8 45

Authorrsquos address

Professor Judith A InggsTranslation and Interpreting StudiesSchool of Literature and Language StudiesUniversity of the WitwatersrandPrivate Bag 3WITS 2050South Africa

Judithinggswitsacza