Konstantin Paustovskii, the 'Communard Captain', and William Morris Hughes. An Australian Motif in an Early Work of Soviet Literature

Abstract

This contribution consists of a translation of a short sketch by Konstantin Paustovskii, published in his first book Morskie nabroski (1925). The sketch in question, 'Kapitan-kommunar', was reworked and expanded a few months later, and the longer version was eventually published in the collection Rodina in 1972. Paustovskii himself and subsequent editors excluded the sketch from his collected works, presumably because the material in it (the Rodina version) had been re-used, with some changes, in the novel The Gleaming Clouds (Blistaiushchie oblaka, 192)].The nameless hero of the sketch is Aleksandr Zuzenko, a close friend of Paustovskii and fellow-journalist in 1923-1924. Zuzenko, a sailor, later a Soviet sea captain, had spent many years in Australia and been deported as an undesirable 'disloyalist'.The translation is of the Morskie nabroski version, but indicates where the author made additions in the Rodina version, and what further changes were made in the novel. The translation is preceded by an introduction explaining the context and background. The introduction and notes draw on British, Australian, and Russian (Comintern) archive materials, and on literary sources, to supply further detail on the Captain, his career, and his connection with Paustovskii.