Alexander Melentyevich Volkov (1891-1977)
To 125th anniversary of the birth of the Russian children's writer
We are in the city of Emerald
We are walking along a difficult road,
We are walking along a difficult road,
Dear indirect
Three cherished wishes
Performed by wise Goodwin
And Ellie will return
Home with Totoshka.
Who doesn't remember this old song? Soviet cartoon! Do you remember? Of course, this is The Wizard of Oz.
June 14 marked the 125th anniversary of the birth of the author of the book on which the cartoon was based, the wonderful children's writer Alexander Melentyevich Volkov.
It was very talented person: at the age of three he learned to read, at the age of eight he bound books for his neighbors so that he could read new book, VAt six years old he entered the second grade of the city school and at twelve he graduated as the best student. He graduated from the Tomsk Teachers' Institute and worked as a teacher.in the ancient Altai city of Kolyvan, and then in his hometown of Ust-Kamenogorsk, at the school where he began his education.I independently studied French and German.
In the 20s, Volkov moved to Yaroslavl, worked as a school director, and at the same time passed exams as an external student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Pedagogical Institute. In 1929 he moved to Moscow.
At the age of 40, the father of the family (he had a beloved wife and two sons) entered Moscow State University, completed a five-year course in the mathematics department in seven months and taught for twenty years. higher mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold. And along the way, he taught an elective course in literature for students, studied literature, history, geography, astronomy and was actively involved in translations.
But it was not mathematics that brought Alexander Melentievich Volkov worldwide fame. Great connoisseur foreign languages, he decided to learn English as well. He was offered to practice on the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by Lyman Frank Baum. Volkov was so captivated by the book that the result was not a translation, but an adaptation of the book by an American writer. Alexander Melentyevich altered something, added something. He came up with a meeting with a cannibal, a flood and other adventures. The girl began to be called Ellie, the dog Totoshka spoke, and the Wise Man from the Land of Oz turned into the Great and Terrible Wizard Goodwin. Many cute, funny, sometimes almost imperceptible changes have turned the American fairy tale into a wonderful new book. The writer worked on the manuscript for a year and called it “The Wizard of the Emerald City” with the subtitle “Reworkings of a fairy tale by the American writer Frank Baum.” The famous children's writer Samuil Marshak, having read the manuscript, approved it and submitted it to the publishing house, strongly advising Volkov to take up literature professionally.
The book was published in 1939 with a circulation of twenty-five thousand copies with black and white illustrations by the artist Nikolai Radlov. Readers were delighted. Therefore, the next year, its re-publication appeared, in the “school series”, the circulation of which was 170 thousand copies.
In 1959, Alexander Volkov met the aspiring artist Leonid Vladimirsky, this acquaintance grew into a long collaboration and great friendship. And “The Wizard of the Emerald City” was published with new illustrations, which were later recognized as classics. Since then, the book has been constantly republished, enjoying continued success.
Young readers fell in love with the heroes of the Emerald City so much that they literally flooded the author with letters, insistently demanding that he continue the tale of the adventures of Ellie and her faithful friends - the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and the dog Totoshka. Volkov responded to letters with the books “Urfin Djus and His Wooden Soldiers” and “Seven Underground Kings.” Readers' letters continued to come, and the good wizard Volkov wrote three more fairy tales - “The Fire God of the Marrans,” “The Yellow Fog” and “The Secret of the Abandoned Castle.” The books were no longer directly connected in any way with the works of L. F. Baum, only sometimes partial borrowings and alterations appeared in them.
The creative collaboration between Volkov and Vladimirsky turned out to be long-lasting and very fruitful. Working side by side for twenty years, they practically became co-authors of books - sequels to The Wizard. Leonid Vladimirsky became the “court artist” of the Emerald City, created by Volkov. He illustrated all five Wizard sequels.
I would like to note that the book was illustrated by many famous artists, and often editions with new illustrations became a big event, the book acquired a new image.
In 1989, the Children's Literature publishing house published a book with illustrations by the wonderful artist Viktor Chizhikov. The work of this master cannot be confused with anyone else's. And the publication turned out to be very interesting and lively.
Volkov's cycle was an incredible success. All six fairy tales about the Emerald City were translated into many languages of the world with a total circulation of several tens of millions of copies.
In our country, this cycle became so popular that in the 1990s its continuations began to be created. This was started by Yuri Kuznetsov, who decided to continue the epic and wrote a new story - “Emerald Rain” in 1992. Children's writer Sergei Sukhinov, since 1997, has published more than 12 books in the “Emerald City” series. In 1996, Leonid Vladimirsky, an illustrator of books by A. Volkov and A. Tolstoy, connected his two favorite characters in the book “Pinocchio in the Emerald City.”
Based on “The Wizard of the Emerald City,” the writer in 1940 wrote a play of the same name, which was staged in puppet theaters Moscow, Leningrad, and other cities. In the sixties, a new version of the play for theaters for young spectators was performed in many theaters across the country.
Filmmakers also paid attention to the writer’s fairy tales. The Moscow filmstrip studio created filmstrips based on the fairy tales “The Wizard of the Emerald City” and “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers.” In 1973, the Ekran association produced a ten-episode puppet film based on A. M. Volkov’s fairy tales “The Wizard of the Emerald City,” “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers,” and “Seven Underground Kings.”
At Tomsk State Pedagogical University A unique children's museum "Magic Country" was created, bearing the name of the writer. This is not an ordinary museum; children here can run, jump and even touch the exhibits. The museum is located in the old university building, where Alexander Melentyevich once studied. Among the museum's exhibits is a collection of A. Volkov's belongings, donated by his granddaughter Kaleria Vivianovna. The museum has a lot of books - various editions of the writer's works, manuscripts and photographs, official and personal documents, business records and notes and, of course, letters - from Alexander Melentyevich himself, letters and postcards from readers, publishers, relatives and friends.
In 2014, in the city of Tomsk, where A. Volkov studied, a monument was erected to the heroes of “The Wizard of the Emerald City”. Its author is sculptor Martin Pala.
“It is possible that, finishing the last story about his heroes, A. Volkov would give the floor to his favorite Scarecrow. And he would probably say: “We are sad to part with you, dear girls and boys. Remember that we taught you the most precious thing in the world – friendship!”I wrote these words artist Leonid Vladimirsky in the afterword to the last book of the series - “The Mystery of the Abandoned Castle”, and we completely agree with him. Therefore, we invite you to visit the library, take books by Alexander Volkov and again travel along the yellow brick road.
- We will search among the fandom characters
Character Groups
Total characters - 123
0 0 0
Giantess girl from the Ouid tribe
0 0 0
The second maid of honor of the sorceress Stella stole the Golden Cap and, with the help of the Flying Monkeys, seized power in the Pink Country. Was expelled, later came to power in the Blue Country by deception, but was also expelled
2 19 2
The main positive male character in the books of Sergei Sukhinov. White knight. Born in the Country of Underground Miners, after his father was arrested by order of King Tognar, he fled to the Yellow Country and was raised in the palace of the sorceress Villina. Found the legendary sword of the sorcerer Thorn, took part in a campaign in underground country, conducted reconnaissance, during which he learned the secret of the Gate of Darkness. Married Ellie Smith
1 0 1
Kansas farmwoman, mother of Ellie and Annie Smith, wife of John Smith, sister of Charlie Black, grandmother of Chris Tull and/or Annushka (Annie) and Tom (boy)
0 2 0
Daughter of Alarm and Ellie Smith, sister of Tom (boy)
0 2 0
Evil sorceress-giantess, daughter of Karena. She appeared in the Magic Land in ancient times and was put to sleep by Gurricap for 5 thousand years. After awakening, she tried to conquer the Magic Land by releasing the Yellow Fog on it.
0 0 0
Blacksmith-Migun, member of the Dark Squad. Built the Iron Castle and the first car in the Magic Land
0 0 0
Chronicler from the Land of Underground Miners
0 0 0
The dog, Annie Smith's companion on her travels, Toto's grandson
0 0 0
Saber-toothed tiger was defeated by the cave lion Grau and disappeared into the Land of Weeds
0 14 20
General of the Ramerian army, red-bearded Menvit. He led the expedition of the starship "Diavona" to conquer the Earth. The owner of Ilsor. Was put to sleep by the Arzaks and the inhabitants of the Magic Land
0 0 0
Prince of the World of Clouds, Irinia's fiancé. He opposed the Lord of Darkness Pakir and was cast down with his people underground, where he became the King of the Darkness. His ghost lived in the ruins of a castle on the shores of the Underground Sea
0 1 1
Cook at the Emerald Palace
0 0 0
One of the Seven Underground Kings, orange
1 3 0
Evil sorceress, ruler of the Violet Country, sister of Gingema, mistress of the Golden Cap. Died at the hands of Ellie Smith as a result of being doused with water.
0 0 0
The Guardian of Time, who proposed putting non-reigning kings to sleep for six months
0 0 0
Marran, colonel in the army of Oorfene Deuce, then one of the elders of the tribe
0 4 0
One of two miner doctors
0 0 0
A prince who rebelled against his father and was banished to the Cave along with his supporters. First ruler of the Underground Miners, ancestor of all Underground Kings
0 0 0
Leader of the Black Dragons. Captured in the Forest of Ghosts, freed by Korina, helped her come to power in the Emerald City
0 0 0
Descendant of basilisks. It looks like a sea stingray with a long tail, decorated with a bony crest, covered with blue scales, and fringed along the edges of the wings. The head is bar-shaped, the eyes are located below. One is ordinary, the other is magical, paralyzing people with indescribable horror for a day or two. A gloomy and unsociable beast. He is only friends with a ghost named Mom and Parcelius. Feeds on butterflies. He was with Parzelius until he went into the caves to look for the Black Flame. Then he joined the Fairytale People.
0 4 0
Bride of the Tin Woodman, mother of Princess Langa. For many years she lived in the village of Sosenki, cut off from the rest of the world by the Forest of Ghosts and the Endless Wall.
3 6 0
Good sorceress, ruler of the Yellow Country. Capable of instantly moving from one place to another, she possesses a book that shrinks and grows at her will. I met Ellie and Annie Smith when they first arrived in the Magic Land, they were both sent to walk along the road paved with yellow bricks. According to Sukhinova's books - Guardian of the Edge of the Thorn, Eskimo by birth
0 0 0
A girl from the planet Irena, who came to Earth and the Land of Elms through a synchrotunnel
0 0 0
One of two mechanical mules created by Fred Canning
0 14 2
Leader of the Menvits, ruler of the planet Rameria. Sent the starship "Diavon" to Earth with the aim of conquering
0 0 0
A dog from a neighboring farm with whom Totoshka was at enmity
0 1 0
The heroine of the magazine version of “The Secret of the Abandoned Castle” by Alexandra Volkova. Arzachka, nurse from the starship Diavona
1 4 0
Evil sorceress, ruler of the Blue Country. Caused hurricanes, died crushed by the Smiths' caravan. According to the books, Sukhinova adopted and trained Korina, who was lost in the forest.
0 0 0
Water serpent from the Land of Weed, guardian of the Dark River
0 0 0
Cave lion from the planet Rameria. Moved to the Magic Land, where he became the assistant of the Brave Lion
3 4 1
One of the eagle owls of Gingema, who became an adviser and companion to Oorfene Deuce
0 0 0
According to Sukhinov's books, this was the name of the Tin Woodman when he was still a man
0 3 0
An illusionist from Kansas who arrived in Magic Land in a hot air balloon. Founder and first ruler of the Emerald City. For many years he successfully convinced everyone that he was the Great and Terrible Wizard. Exposed by Ellie and her friends, returned to Kansas, leaving Scarecrow as his successor
0 1 0
A giant wizard who created the Magic Land according to the books of Volkov and Kuznetsov and put Arachne to sleep. According to Kuznetsov, originally from Rameria
0 0 0
Mayor of the city of Stellaria, the capital of the Pink Country. One of the leaders of the uprising against the self-proclaimed Queen Agnet
0 0 0
A boy from a neighboring farm who tried to hit Kaggi-Karr with a stone. According to Kuznetsov, he became the husband of Ellie Smith and the father of Chris Tull
0 0 0
Kansas farmer, father of Ellie and Annie Smith, husband of Anna Smith, grandfather of Chris Tull and/or Annushka (Annie) and Tom (boy)
2 5 0
The Longbeard Soldier from the Emerald City was the only man in Goodwin's army. One of the closest friends and associates of the Scarecrow the Wise, was appointed field marshal, participant in the wars with Oorfene Deuce, Arachne, and the Menvits
0 5 1
An ugly orphan boy from the Big World, crippled from birth. Wanting to gain beauty and health, he came to the Magic Land with Ellie Smith. He got what he wanted from Corina by betraying Ellie, but then, tormented by remorse, he saved her. Became the Black Knight of the Lord of Darkness Pakir, assembled and led the Dark Squad. After losing the fight for the sword, Torna languished in prison, from where he was released by Princess Langa.
0 0 0
The Iron Giant, guardian of the Gate of Darkness, lost his memory and shrunk by Korina
0 0 0
Giant, ruler of the Fairy Folk
10 17 5
Munchkin, a woodcutter who gradually became an iron man from an ordinary man due to the evil magic of Gingema, provoked by his fiancee's aunt. After that, having lost his heart, he returned his word to his bride and began to live alone in the forest until he was caught in the rain and rusted. Saved by Ellie, Toto and Scarecrow. The woodcutter told them about his dream of having a heart again and joined their company. The Flying Monkeys defeated the Tin Woodman, throwing him into the gorge onto sharp rocks. After the death of Bastinda, he was restored by Migunami and called upon to rule the Violet Country. Having received the heart from Goodwin and escorted Ellie to Stella, he returned to the Violet Country and truly became the ruler of the Miguns
7 0The Crow who advised the Scarecrow to get a brain. She came to the Scarecrow’s court in the Emerald City as his “oldest friend,” “educator and mentor,” and remained there. Created a bird relay race, becoming General Director Fairyland connections. I took a letter to Ellie to Kansas asking for help. Acted as Ruler of the Emerald Isle while the Scarecrow was in captivity
0 0 0
Giant sorceress, mother of Arachne. Enslaved the Taurek tribe, also known as the Dwarf Chroniclers. Was robbed and left to fend for herself by her own daughter
2 0 0
Giant eagle. He was persecuted by the leader of his tribe, Arrajes, who tried to usurp Carfax's turn to produce an heir. He organized a conspiracy against Arrajes, which, due to betrayal, was discovered. Saved by Oorfene Deuce. In gratitude, Carfax served Urfin, creating the image of the Fire God until he saw through his deception. He retired to the mountains, where he became the leader of the eagle tribe. Participated in the fight against Arachne. Has a son, Goriek
Alexander Volkov
In the mid-thirties, I had the opportunity to read Frank Baum’s fairy tale “The Wise Man of Oz,” well-known in America, in English.
Baum's tale attracted me with the originality of its characters and their amazing fate. The girl Ellie, brought to the Magic Land by a hurricane, finds her future friends in the most dire situation: the straw scarecrow Scarecrow sits on a stake in a wheat field, and impudent crows laugh at him; The Tin Woodman, bewitched by an evil sorceress, rusts in a deep forest; The lion, who according to all fairy tale laws should rule the animal kingdom, is afraid of everyone and everything.
And how unusual their desires are! The Scarecrow needs brains: with brains in his head he will become like all other people. The woodcutter wants a heart that can love. A lion without courage cannot become the king of beasts; if he achieves this, he will rule wisely and justly.
Everything was conceived very well by Baum, and, however, in order to present the fairy tale to Soviet children, a lot of reworking was required. And I came up with a prediction from Villina’s magic book: “Let Ellie help the three creatures achieve their cherished desires, and then she will return home.” 
The heroes walked briskly along the road, friends go to the Emerald City: only there can their wishes come true. But their path is long and difficult, there are many dangers and obstacles on it. And, overcoming these obstacles, the heroes of the fairy tale acquire the qualities they strive for. The Scarecrow becomes smart, the Woodcutter becomes kind, the Lion becomes brave.
The fairy tale wisely says: do not try to get happiness from the hands of others, achieve it through struggle, through mutual assistance, help each other, and victory will be yours!
The fairy tale is over, turned upside down last page books. But the guys don’t want to part with Ellie and her friends. Letters are flying to me: what happened next?
I could not remain indifferent to the requests of readers and decided to continue the story about the amazing creatures that inhabit the Magic Land, which I studied so well, as if I had traveled through it and traveled around it from end to end. I wrote the stories “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” and “Seven Underground Kings,” which was supposed to be the last in the cycle of fairy tales about the Magic Land. The path to retreat was cut off by Ramina, the queen of the field mice. She predicted Ellie that she would never return to her friends Scarecrow, Woodcutter, and Lion.
But the will of the readers turned out to be stronger than the will of the author. Many letters of protest poured in. And many readers ask us to make sure that fairy Ramina makes a mistake, so that her prediction turns out to be wrong and Ellie returns to the Magic Land more than once... 
My heart couldn’t stand it – I started writing the fourth fairy tale. But undermining the authority of fairies, even those like little Ramina, is a dangerous business for a storyteller.
The cycle of fairy tales about the Magic Land continues, but Ellie no longer crosses the Great Desert, she was replaced by her younger sister Annie, and the following tales tell about her and her friend Tim O'Kelly: “The Fire God of the Marrans” and “The Yellow Fog.”
Please note that in the first fairy tale it was only about the fulfillment of the cherished desires of the Scarecrow, the Woodcutter and the Lion, and Ellie returning to her homeland.
In the second, the peoples of the Magic Land have to fight for their independence with the wooden soldiers of Oorfene Deuce, in the third, the Underground Miners rebel against the order that has weighed on people for thousands of years. And in the fourth tale, over the course of many months, the Marranos travel that path of human history on which peoples big world it took many years. The fairy tale “Yellow Fog” is not only about the freedom of the inhabitants of the Magic Land - the spell of the evil Arachne threatens its very existence...
Maybe you ask me: what will happen next? How will it all end?
Read it and find out.
Will there be more fairy tales about the Magic Land?
Maybe...
Series: Book 1 – The Wizard of the Emerald City
Year of book release: 1959
The history of the creation of the book “The Wizard of the Emerald City” is somewhat unusual. The author of the book, Alexander Volkov, studied independently English language and for translation practice I decided to translate the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” As a result, the author became so carried away by the book itself and its literary translation that it turned out to be practically a new work. It became no worse than the original and became widespread not only in the territory former USSR, but also in other countries of the world. So now “The Wizard of the Emerald City” can be read in more than 25 languages of the world, and the total circulation of books sold exceeds several million copies. All this allowed Alexander Volkov not only to take a worthy place in our ranking, but also to see numerous film adaptations of his works during his lifetime.
Summary of the book “The Wizard of the Emerald City”
The events of Volkov’s book “The Wizard of the Emerald City” unfold around an ordinary girl Ellie and her dog, Totoshka. By the will of the evil sorceress Gingema, the girl's house is thrown into fairyland. But thanks to the good sorceress Villina, the house falls right on Gingema’s head and crushes it. And Ellie inherits her shoes from Gingema. According to Villina, only the wizard Goodwin, who rules the Emerald City, can help her return home, and the girl goes on a journey.
Along the way, she makes friends - the Scarecrow, who wants to ask Goodwin for his brains. The Tin Man, who wants to ask Goodwin for his heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who wants to ask Goodwin for his courage. Overcoming many obstacles on their way, they reach the Emerald City, but Goodwin first demands that the Violet Country be freed from the evil sorceress Bastinda. In contrast, they manage to achieve their goals with the help of friendship and mutual assistance. And although Ellie and her friends manage to free the country from Bastinda, Goodwin is in no hurry to fulfill her wishes.
It turns out that Goodwin is not a wizard, but a common person, who got to a magical land in a hot air balloon. To fulfill his promise, he decides to fix his balloon and return home with Ellie. But a gust of wind takes Goodwin home alone in the balloon, and Ellie is left with friends who have gained brains, hearts and courage in the process of traveling. But Ellie wants to return home and, on the advice of the soldier, the friends go to the Pink Country to visit the sorceress Stella. Having overcome many dangers, Ellie learns from Stella that in order to return home, it is enough to wish for it and the shoes from Gingema will take her home. And after saying goodbye to her friends, Ellie returns to her parents.
The book “The Wizard of the Emerald City” in the ratings of the Top Books site.
The popularity of reading Volkov’s “The Wizard of the Emerald City” is so great that this allowed the book to get into our rating. Moreover, the interest in the book at the time of its first publication was so great that it forced the author to write a sequel to the book and create a whole series of books about the adventures of Ellie and her friends. Over the years, reading the book “The Wizard of the Emerald City” has become increasingly popular, and we will probably also see this good and interesting book in the next ratings.
The book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by American Lyman Frank Baum was published in 1900, and its sequels were published until 1920, until Baum’s death. In total, he wrote 14 stories about the Land of Oz, but after that other authors took up the universe, writing a total of more than fifty works.
Among them were Lyman’s son and his great-grandson, however, the entire circulation of the former was recalled with a scandal - after all, the intellectual rights to works about the Land of Oz belonged to another publishing house.
Alexander Volkov wrote his version in 1939, then rewrote it again 20 years later, moving even further from Baum's original, and then again.
Despite the fact that he published only 6 books, he wrote them even longer than Baum did his 14 - 37 years passed between the release of the first and the last (the last one was published in 1976), straight greetings to George R. R. Martin.
Only the first books in Volkov and Baum's series tell the same story: a girl and her dog land on an evil sorceress, find the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Lion, then travel together to the Emerald City along the yellow brick road to have their ruler fulfill their wishes. but he turns out to be a deceiver. Then the authors diverge in completely different directions - Volkov wrote the sequels on his own, and they do not overlap with Baum’s sequels in almost anything.
This is a saying, now let's move on to the interesting facts.
Political fairy tale
Baum's The Wizard of Oz was, according to literary scholars, a political satire, like many other classics: Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Dante's The Divine Comedy, and so on.
The Tin Woodman (in the original, however, he was made of tin - Tinman) personified the workers from whom industrial society demanded inhuman efforts and gradually took away their humanity and turned them into robots.
The scarecrow was a collective image of a farmer who had to unite with the worker to fight for their rights. The Lion personified the army, Winkers and Munchkins - careless inhabitants, and the Flying Monkeys - Pinkerton's agents, and so on.
Volkov in his sequels was stuck for a long time in the theme of overthrowing tyranny, taken from Baum’s first book - the heroes free the Munchkins from Gingema, the Migunov from Bastinda, the Emerald City from the manipulator Goodwin, then from Oorfene Deuce, the underground miners from their Seven Kings (to them erased their memory and convinced them that they were ordinary workers), the jumpers - again from Oorfene, the entire Magic Land - from the power of Arachne, and then the whole Earth - from being captured by aliens.
Most expensive film
In the same 1939, when Volkov’s first book was published, the Hollywood film adaptation of Baum’s book, “The Wizard of Oz,” was released, which was the most expensive film of that time and one of the first color films.
During filming, several directors changed, among whom were two people who later (also in turn) worked on Gone with the Wind. The picture still holds a special place in the hearts of many Americans, who were amazed at the splendor of the magical land at one time.
The rich colors of the luxurious scenery blew away the viewer, accustomed to black and white films, even more than the 3D in “Avatar” - we were 8 years ago.
Batman, Fast and Furious and Michael Jackson
In 1978, another remarkable film adaptation was released, also a musical - “Viz”. It was directed by the legendary Sidney Lumet (“12 Angry Men”), the script was written by Joel Schumacher (the same one who would later send an entire genre into a coma with his “Batman and Robin”), and the producer was Rob Cohen, the director of “XxX” and the first, the best "Fast and Furious".
Acid Monsters In 1978, another remarkable film adaptation was released, also a musical - “Viz”. It was directed by the legendary Sidney Lumet (“12 Angry Men”), the script was written by Joel Schumacher (the same one who would later send an entire genre into a coma with his “Batman and Robin”), and the producer was Rob Cohen, the director of “XxX” and the first, the best "Fast and Furious".
But this strange confluence of familiar names is just a cake, with the name of the actor playing the Scarecrow as the cherry on top. It was a young, still black Michael Jackson.
But he didn't stand out general background, since all four characters were African-American, like many other heroes. Be sure to watch the trailer for “Visa” or the full analysis from Nostalgia Critic – I’m sure you’ve never seen anything more fucked up. It's hard to believe that this is a real film from the seventies and not some internet hoax.
Acid monsters
Baum's original books, in comparison with Volkov's version, seem extremely chaotic, absurd, and at times downright drug-fueled. Baum's creatures will have to be devoted to a whole series of sub-points - they deserve it.
Rogach is a creature assembled from two sofas, a severed elk head hanging on the wall, palm branches (instead of wings) and a broom (as a tail), into which life was breathed with the same revitalizing powder that Volkov used for Juice to create his wooden army.
Even earlier, this powder was sprinkled on goats that turned into the likeness of a horse, and another scarecrow - Pumpkinhead Jack, who was distinguished from the Scarecrow by his great height, lankyness, a “skeleton” made of wood and a pumpkin instead of a head (when one rots, it is buried and a new one is cut out). But in general, yes, Baum has two animated scarecrows among his characters. Jack became the inspiration for Tim Burton's Skeleton Jack, the main character in The Night Before Christmas.
One of Baum’s first robots in literature was not the Tin Woodman - he was hollow inside, like Bender, but rather one of the first cyborgs, who gradually replaced all human parts with “augmentations”. The first robot was the clockwork Tik-Tok - a pot-bellied mechanical man who often lacked the clockwork to complete the sentence he started.
One of the first transgender people in literature is Billina, Dorothy the hen, who at some point replaced Toto as the girl's companion from Kansas. An American rooster named Bill turned out to be a hen and was renamed Billina by Dorothy, and as soon as Oz gave the animal the ability to speak, the hen explained that she still had doubts about her gender. She then, however, still laid eggs.
There were centaurs on bone wheels instead of hooves, armless jumping runts (humanely turned into Marranos by Volkov), intelligent vegetables, living bagels, an animated glass cat, which was then lobotomized to make it more obedient, Flatheads - people without skulls who carried their brains in jar in your pocket and many others.
Bloodthirsty storytellers
It’s clear that if you take old European fairy tales, there’s generally so much darkness going on there, there’s so much bloodshed and horror that it would make Shakespeare wash his face. Baum, for example, describes an aunt who cut off the heads of beautiful girls and wore them as if they were her own, changing them daily like hats. She had special plans for Dorothy's head.
In his version, Volkov completely removed the heroin nonsense and softened the cruel moments (for example, in his version, Goodwin sends Ellie to Bastinda to “deprive her of her power”; in Baum, Oz openly “ordered” her to Dorothy, demanding to kill her), but much still remained.
In the first book, the Woodcutter killed the Ogre (whom Volkov himself introduced, Baum didn’t have one), 40 wolves and dropped a couple of tigers into the abyss.
The Scarecrow unscrewed the heads of the crows, and ordered the extermination of the saber-toothed tigers, which had been preserved in the Magic Land since prehistoric times and were an endangered species. And they were destroyed.
But the worst thing is that two cats died in Volkov’s books. One was smashed against a tree by Arachne, which doesn’t matter, she’s still a villain, but the second one was cut off by the Tin Woodman himself when the cat tried to devour the mouse queen. That, of course, was very useful to the heroes, but is it normal to chop off the head of a cat who is chasing a mouse? He didn’t cut off Totoshka and Artoshka, who tried to devour Queen Ramina every time. So, he held him by the collar.
Science fiction
Volkov never developed Tik-Tok, but he transferred his idea to the Tin Woodman himself - in the Russian version it was no longer hollow, like Baum’s, but mechanical, inside there were a bunch of gears and springs that allowed him to move and speak.
In the fourth book, Ellie and Fred (who ended up with her in the Magic Land in the third volume) are already adults. Ellie has a younger sister, Annie, who, together with her friend Tim, also dreams of visiting the Magic Land. For them, Fred creates mechanical mules powered by solar batteries - hello to Boston Dynamics and their unfortunate robot mules that everyone kicks.
In the fifth book (the most interesting, in my opinion), to fight the giant sorceress Arachne, Uncle Ellie creates a huge robot to match her - by analogy with the Evas or Jaegers fighting colossal monsters.
This robot, Tilly Willy, had to be wound up, but then it was improved so that it could wind itself up when it moved. In the sixth book, aliens land in the Magic Land: the Menvit masters, who hold Arzak slaves in hypnotic captivity. Aliens in helicopters fighting giant eagles—even Tolkien didn’t have that. Our heroes are trying to help the Arzaks throw off the yoke of the Menvits by giving them emeralds from the treasury of the city of the same name - they deprive hypnosis of its power.
Kuznetsov, who continued Volkov’s series, moved even further into science fiction - the heroes ended up on the planet of the Menvits and Arzaks, and on the open sea - far beyond the borders of the Magic Land. It was Kuznetsov who came up with one of the most fascinating vehicles that captured my imagination as a child - a catamaran assembled based on the top of the Gingema Stone.
Enchanted Stones, placed around the Magic Land, attracted travelers to themselves, after which they died of thirst. Annie and Tim walked past them thanks to their ingenuity - they led their mules exactly between the stones, where their attraction balanced each other (through the Lagrange point, if you like).
So, the top of one stone fell off, retaining its magnetic-gravitational properties, it hovered above the ground, and therefore became the basis for the Arzak catamaran, on which the heroes crossed both deserts and seas.
The same Kuznetsov also came up with the idea that under the lid in the Gingema stone there was hidden a teleportation well, a puncture of space-time leading to the above-mentioned planet. It was in his book that I first heard an explanation of teleportation using a sheet of paper and a puncture with a pencil, which was shown to us with such a clever look in Interstellar.
Artifact Management
As in any fairy tale, these books contain many magical things. Silver slippers, revitalizing powder, a magic TV showing any place of your choice, Arachne's giant flying carpet and the rug cut from her, the Fox King's hoop, the Mouse Queen's whistle, and so on.
It is curious that Volkov keeps track of all the artifacts introduced, does not forget about the elements and heroes that appeared earlier, each time something new is introduced in the book, which will certainly be used in the next story.
Since this can lead to overkill, some elements are displayed, but only with a logical explanation. The silver slippers are lost during the return to Kansas. The invisibility hoop from the fourth book is lost in the fifth due to the cook's joke, which she put on a doe. The doe became invisible and ran away, God knows where to look for her.
Mechanical mules, introduced in the same fourth book, were not included in the fifth, because in the Yellow Fog their solar panels still won’t charge, the magic TV also doesn’t work in the fog - another minus artifact, the flying rug served the heroes in the fifth book, but was lost magical power with the death of Arachne - minus the artifact.
Volkov clearly made sure that solutions to problems were not monotonous and did not each time run into invisibility or “let’s call the eagles,” and also that the heroes were not stupid and did not ignore the obvious solution to the problem with the help of a powerful artifact - that’s what they were brought out for. Hello, Rowling's Time-Turner.
The precious Hoop, which makes the wearer invisible and adjusts to the size of his head, coupled with the giant eagles, hint that Volkov has read Tolkien. The joke is that Volkov uses eagles whenever possible and necessary. The question “why didn’t they just fly on eagles” does not arise.
But there is another problem - against Arachne, for example, the heroes decided to call an eagle to fight, but for some reason they did not call tame dragons. In general, everything is not without sin.
Systematization
Volkov carefully develops all the characters, even if they appear for a couple of paragraphs, unnamed in Baum, in Volkov they receive the names Gingema and Bastinda, the long-bearded Dean Gior, the mouse queen Ramina and many others. Volkov added to Baum’s Munchkins and Wingers the Chatterboxes and Jumpers – the peoples themselves were among Baum, but were not given characteristic names.
Volkov generally significantly streamlined and systematized the description of the Magic Land. In his books, both the narrative itself and the description of the terrain, magic, and even the internal state of the characters are much richer and clearer.
It’s much easier to visualize what’s happening here, but Baum often writes something absurd, surreal, drawn-out and downright muddy; in the sequels of his first book it’s difficult to see a clear storyline, the heroes simply stagger from place to place and are amazed at more and more wonderful creatures and peoples. This could bring his series closer to Alice in Wonderland or Gulliver's Travels, but it falls short, at times resembling a confused recording of a dream.
The book “Yellow Fog” is especially memorable, which became the darkest, because the Magic Land had to face a serious natural disaster.
The yellow fog sent by the sorceress Arachne obscured the sun and caused coughing. The crops were dying, people walked around with watery eyes, seeing virtually nothing in the thick fog. In addition to the difficult conditions that befell all residents of the Magic Land, we remembered scientific methods combating fog - nostril filters, cleaning rooms through sealing and smoke - settling, the smoke carried the fog particles along with it.
In general, it was the ingenuity in solving the problem in completely logical scientific ways that amazed the imagination. Yes, magical artifacts often solved the problem, but how exactly to use these tools to solve the problem also had to be figured out, and complex plans were also used there.
Earrings for all sisters
Tolkien at one time greatly surprised me by introducing 13 dwarves into The Hobbit, who stick together in one lump and do not give the reader much chance or reason to somehow distinguish them. Volkov’s characters are not much fewer than Tolkien’s in The Hobbit, but each has their own role, their own talents, their own finest hour. All the sisters will definitely get earrings, each will have time to accomplish a feat, and this feat will definitely be appreciated, then retold and awarded the order from the Scarecrow. They will definitely cry over the heroism of this feat: the Tin Woodman, realizing late that he would rust from tears, the Lion, brushing away tears with a brush on his tail and drying it in the sun, and the Munchkins, putting their hats with bells on the ground so that their ringing would not interfere with their crying.
Although, of course, in the latest books someone shines far less than in the first stories. The Scarecrow, having received brains, became increasingly smarter and the author gave most of the breakthrough finds to him. But the Woodcutter faded into the shadows over time. He was a bright hero who solved many of the problems of the first book (more than half, probably), in the second book he appears as the Terminator, an invincible and formidable warrior, who just let him reach an ax or hammer, and he will chop down the entire army of wooden soldiers.
They also gave the Woodcutter an epic battle scene, where he was alone in the field, snatching a log from Oorfene's soldier and heroically fell - they took it in numbers.
But already in the third book he essentially did nothing but sit and rust, in the fourth book the Marrans tied him up very easily, in the fifth the Woodcutter did nothing at all, because the role of “Iron Man” was essentially taken over by his own enlarged copy - Tilly -Willy.
Well, Annie in the fifth book, consider it in vain to fly to the Magic Land - it only fell to her lot to call the eagle, but others could have done this too. Tim got a lot more useful things to do. It's funny that the image of the girl was initially central and nominally remained so - she is a symbol, a unifying link, but in reality the others cope with everything, while Annie just sits in place. One Kaggi-karr in each book plows to the fullest.
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