Transformation of M. Zoshchenko’s Plots in the Soviet Literature of the Thirties

Abstract

M. Zoshchenko’s stories of the twenties gave rise to a great number of imitations in mass fiction. Semiofficial writers of the 1930s also often appealed to Zoshchenko’s stories, trying to transform them so that they match the ideological canons of the Stalin era. Thus, M. Kol’tsov includes a variation on the theme of Zoshchenko’s “Podarok” (“Rasskaz o Podletse”) / “The Gift” (“The Story of the Scoundrel”) in his keynote speech on the problem of Soviet satire at the First Soviet Writers’ Congress (1934). At that the conceptual point of Zoshchenko’s story is reduced, a complete story turns into a rough draft for a newspaper feuilleton based on concrete material. Another example of the Soviet-style deconstruction of Zoshchenko’s plot can be found in Kol’tsov’s essay “Three days in a taxi” (1934). “Slight experience” in testing for the Soviet citizens’ honesty is inspired by Zoshchenko’s story “Na Zhivtsa” (“Chestnaia grazhdanka”) / “With Whitebait” (“Honest Citizen”). Bait packages, Zoshchenko’s and Kol’tsov’s characters catch thieves with, look very similar but fundamentally differ in their concepts. This serves the evidence of a significant difference in the writers’ views on human nature of the Soviet era.