Ostrov Krym. by V. AksenovReview by: Deming BrownSlavic Review, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Summer, 1983), pp. 336-337Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2497582 .

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336 Slavic Review

Russian writer before Gazdanov had written with quite the same barren simplicity." Too much space is devoted to retelling of plots and to lengthy summaries of critical articles on Gazdanov. Other shortcomings of the volume include repetitive statements and annoying and completely unnecessary underlining of words. They detract consider- ably from the book's value. Furthermore, the general typographical appearance of the book is not particularly inspiring.

TEMIRA PACHMUSS University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

OSTROV KRYM. By V. Aksenov. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1981. 324 pp. Paper.

Imagine that the Crimea was not overtaken by the October Revolution and, by a fluke, became a last, impregnable bastion of the White armies. After retreating there and holding their ground, the Whites then created a republic totally independent of the Soviet Union. Its economy flourished, and it became a thoroughly Western, cosmopolitan nation, with a population consisting primarily of Russians and Tatars but also including Englishmen, Greeks, Turks, and Italians.

Imagine, further, that Hitler never existed and that World War II did not take place. Moreover, although Stalin and his regime did exist, the Crimea remained miraculously immune to Soviet developments, thrived on international trade, and became a wealthy capitalist democracy. With its lavish yacht basins, freeways, golf courses, skyscrapers, and hostelries such as the Yalta Hilton, it became a glittering showcase of Western decadence. For Soviet citizens, of course, the Crimea became a mouth-watering but unapproachable Disneyland of opulence and freedom.

Indigenous political ferment, however, threatens the stability of Aksenov's "island." A growing and obstreperous party, the "Yaki," supported chiefly by the younger generation, is clamoring to establish a new local nationality by fusing Russian, Tatar, and English cultural and linguistic elements. Its chief opponent is the Soiuz obshchei sud'by (SOS), a movement of idealistic Crimean intellectuals who believe in the "moral and mystical" mission of Russia. Espousing the "Idea of a Common Destiny," the SOS is working for a voluntary annexation of the Crimea by the USSR. The giant bear in the north maintains an enigmatic silence, but watches closely.

Such is the historical and political background of Aksenov's violent, far-ranging fantasy of international intrigue, set in Moscow, Paris, and the Crimea. The plot is fairly intricate, and the novel is densely and colorfully populated by Soviet, American, European, and Crimean men and women of various ages, stations, and persuasions. The main protagonists are Luchnikov, an Oxford-educated jet setter who edits the most influential Crimean newspaper and who, as an "almost communist" acutely aware of his Russian origins, has been flirting with the idea of union with the fatherland; and Kuzenkov, a Soviet specialist on Crimean affairs who loves and understands the Crimea and its politics and tendencies, and who anxiously urges Soviet authorities to adopt enlightened and generous policies toward their tiny, lively neighbor.

From beginning to melodramatic end, the novel, like nearly all of Aksenov's fiction, is jam-packed with contemporary topical references (Farrah Fawcett, male chauvinist pigs) and self-consciously up-to-date vocabulary, with special emphasis on American- isms. The main focus, however, is on the Soviet Union, portrayed satirically in nearly all its features and often condemned fundamentally. Although the novel is clearly fantastic, one of its main arguments is that the USSR is ultimately controlled by a tight circle of narrow nationalists, anti-Semitic and fascistic.

Mordant, sexy, and sometimes very funny, Ostrov Krym stretches the imagination much in the fashion of Aksenov's fiction of the past fifteen years. In a purely literary sense, however, it is much more conservative than his other recent writings. The

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Reviews 337

narrative manner is straightforward, and the novel is devoid of the fragmented charac- ters, surrealistic devices, and multiple ambiguities of such works as Zolotaia nasha zhelezka and Ozhog. The absence of extreme formal experimentation, however, makes Ostrov Krym no less interesting.

DEMING BROWN

University of Michigan

RUSSKIE VOLSHEBNYE SKAZKI SIBIRI. Compilation, introduction, and commen- taries by R. P. Matveeva. Novosibirsk: "Nauka," 1981. 333 pp.

Matveeva's two earlier anthologies of tales collected in Siberia, Russkie narodnye skazki Sibiri o bogatyriakh (1979) and Russkie geroicheskie skazki Sibiri (1980), which also appeared under the imprint of the Novosibirsk branch of "Nauka," presented Siberian Russian variants of tales of victory over the serpent and of journeys to the three (copper, silver, and gold) kingdoms. Now the author has brought together forty-one tales grouped in three major subjects: Mednyi lob (Copper-brow, or the Blockhead), Koshchei the Immortal's death contained in an egg, and miraculous flight (chudnoe begstvo). Approxi- mately one-third of the tales in the present collection were recorded in the nineteenth century, but the remainder are from the 1920s, except for sixteen that were collected in the period from 1947 to 1971.

Matveeva's anthologies of Siberian tales are intended for folklorists and regional historians. Therefore, she provides an introductory essay discussing the tales and their place in the larger repertoire of Russian skazki. Each tale is supplied with a commentary indicating the names of the teller and transcriber, the year it was recorded, the relevant type according to the Aarne-Thompson Motif-Index. Many tales also include a brief discussion of their specific characteristics within the subject group to which they belong. With respect to peculiarities of grammar and syntax, the texts have been reproduced in versions relatively faithful to the local dialect of the teller, but occasionally phonetic divergences from the norm are reflected in the orthography, for example, kovda for kogda, shes' for shest'. Appended to the anthology is a glossary of regional and uncom- mon words, a topographical index indicating the village in which each tale was collected, a list of the first names and nicknames found in the tales, and lists of the names of the tellers and the collectors.

The tales from the nineteenth century are similar to those from European Russia published in Afanas'ev's three-volume collection, and almost all incorporate traditional formulae such as V nekotorom tsarstve, v nekotorom gosudarstve, and Zhil byl tsar', and epithets, for example, dobrye molodtsy and krasnye devitsy, as well as other features familiar from standard versions. But those recorded in more recent times are less epic in scope, and the fabulous elements seem secondary to the plot line. Matveeva points out that the very modern tales show some degree of influence from neighboring peoples, especially the Buriats, and that they reveal considerable changes in the standard patterns and often contain a mixture of motifs from several types. Tale no. 31, "Tsarevich i doch' Koshcheia Bessmertnogo," recorded in the Tomsk raion in 1970, is especially interesting in this respect.

This collection, together with Matveeva's earlier anthologies, will provide a sound basis for the comparative study of changes which have taken place in the tradition of Russian magic tales.

JOSEPH L. CONRAD

University of Kansas

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