The Ziegentur constellation

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Tur, Caucasian Ibex

The constellation of the Ziegentur ( Russian Созвездие Козлотура / Soswesdije Koslotura ) from 1966 is a satirical story by the Abkhazian writer Fasil Iskander , which is one of his greatest successes. The first-person narrator good-naturedly mocks the propagandists of the hybrid breeding of an allegedly extraordinarily powerful high mountain goat in his native Abkhazia, as a satire on the adventurous and often amateurish economic policy of Khrushchev . In the Neo-Stalinist era, among other things, the conviction of the “followers of Michurin's agrobiology” of frost-resistant fruit growing in Russia was used as an analogue that was not taken seriously .

The Ziegentur constellation first appeared in 1966 in issue 8 of the Soviet literary magazine Nowy Mir in Moscow . The translation into German by Hans-Joachim Grimm came out in 1968 at Volk und Welt in East Berlin .

content

After completing his studies in journalism , the anonymous first-person narrator worked for a Moscow youth magazine. Less than a year later, he was fired for criticizing a poem by the editor-in-chief. So the bad luck raven left the capital and found a job with a real “adult newspaper” - the provincial newspaper Rote Subtropen in the Abkhazian homeland there at the “Orange Cape” in a seaside resort on the Black Sea coast . Avtandil Avtandilowitsch, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, places the young man in the agriculture department. His superior there becomes Plato Samsonovich. The head of department is effectively married to the newspaper; has run away from his wife a couple of times and is currently pushing the Ziegentur breeding campaign . The latter is a unique cross between the stately door and an inconspicuous Abkhaz domestic goat. In any case, the newly hired young journalist has to follow in Plato's footsteps - no easy undertaking. After all, Plato made a name for himself as a leading article writer on cultural policy with his contribution The goat's door - a weapon in anti-religious propaganda .

Among the writers of letters to the editor, opponents of the veteran journalist Plato in the Red Subtropics also speak up. Employees of an agricultural research institute complain about the naming; favor goat over goat. A critical zoo technician is discussed in depth. The journalists do not allow themselves to be misled. Kolkhoz chairmen, who are rather indifferent towards the new breed, are accused of indifference towards everything new. At the place where the Red Subtropics are published , a beach café is named Tränke des Ziegenturs . In the mountains, on the upper reaches of the Kodor , a sanatorium is now called Ziegentur . Abkhazia competes with Iowa in maize production and wants to extend the competition to goat-door breeding.

When the first-person narrator now has to go to a kolkhoz to visit a goat's gate, he remembers the encounter with mountain goats in his youth. In the bad year of 1942, at the age of 13, he survived the two probably accidentally flown bomb attacks by the Germans on his hometown, which was not an important part of the war, only because, as a precaution , he had been sent to his grandfather in the Abkhazian mountains as a goatherd.

The fun plot then reaches its climax during a visit to that collective farm "in the village of Nussquelle". In addition to the chairman of the collective farm, two Abkhaz originals appear. These are the sleeping agronomist , an indispensable specialist in tea cultivation who mostly slumbers in the service - the main source of income for the collective farm. And the historian and restorer Wachtang Botschua, doctor of archeology and member of the Society for the Dissemination of Scientific and Political Knowledge . Wachtang wants to give the lecture Our pride - the goat's door in the village of Nussquelle . The first-person narrator cannot and does not want to remain until these statements about “the continuous goat turization”. He was shown how the goat gate - a stocky animal with pink eyes - attacks a herd of intimidated Abkhaz goats. When Wachtang talked about the Abkhaz goat that was waiting for the plump Ibex Tur, the nursing mother of the poorest farmers, the journalist who had traveled there had to cover his ears. After the guest has left, the business trip is not over yet. The chauffeur has the order from the kolkhoz chairman to get the impatient guest drunk with Isabella wine on the way. Journalists need that. The chauffeur does the job in a "blue-washed snack hall". Drunk, the drunk goes to the beach of the Black Sea in the middle of the night and sees "the constellation of the Goat's Gate" in the sky. One of the Capricorn's two blinking eyes squints in the sky. The first-person narrator has this title-giving experience only once. Days later, again sober, back home, at night he searches the sky in vain for the imaginary constellation.

The first-person narrator writes his Nussdorf article on the goat gate. The editor-in-chief Awtandil Awtandilowitsch and also department head Plato Samsonowitsch qualify the work as harmful chocolates. The young author is transferred to the cultural department with the verdict: "You can write, but you don't know life."

Although the “regional conference on goat turization of the collective farms” was brought to a successful conclusion, in the Red Subtropics the campaign for “continuous goat turization” in Abkhazia is going steeply downhill. The staff of that agricultural research institute mentioned above and the critical zoo technician are ultimately right. The pioneer, Plato, is deposed as head of department. He couldn't cope with the strict reprimand on official channels, fell ill with " fatigue due to weak nerves " and ended up in the Ziegentur mountain sanatorium .

shape

The narrator comments during the relaxed narration guarantee enjoyable reading. For example, he writes about the name Plato Samsonowitsch: The first name Plato is common in Abkhazia; probably one of the relics of Greek colonization. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia , Volume II, p. 206 is quoted. The historian Wachtang is introduced as a Tschangalist. This is someone in Abkhazia who likes to drink on behalf of others. In his function as chairman of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Monuments , Wachtang wrote a bestseller Blooming Ruins for the numerous “ intourists ” who visit the rayon every year. And the sleeping agronomist slumbers "like Kutuzov during a council of war meeting ".

The first-person narrator, picked up by the militia on the beach the morning after the Isabella wine binge , took the opportunity to report the theft of his Swiss watch brand Doxa in the militia area . He says to the two militiamen: “It was a booty watch. My uncle brought her back from the war . ”The chief investigator, a captain, only gives up when a plausible explanation for the loss has been found. The drunk supposedly gave the clock away in the snack hall. “A voluntary gift is considered a local national custom,” states the captain. The journalist is allowed to go.

The narrative comes to a conciliatory conclusion. Plato returns from the mountain sanatorium well rested, gets along with his wife again and goes fishing with the first-person narrator in the waters of the Black Sea. In doing so, Plato proves to be the master angler himself. The catch of the first-person narrator is more than modest compared to Plato's earnings, which also includes a gurnard . In the final fishing scene, one of the narrative's strengths - the visual comparison - stands out: when Plato has cast all the fishing lines at once, he listens from the boat into the depths, “as if he was operating a utopian control panel or ruling an underwater kingdom. "

reception

In his entry on the work in Kindler's Literatur Lexikon , Holt Meyer takes the view that Iskander is parodying attempts that have been made in all periods of Soviet history in order to “win over broad masses of the population for an idea and to use the media to gain public opinion to steer". Using the example of two editors, everyday journalistic work is mocked with a lot of humor and situational wit. In many passages comical effects would be achieved by irrelevant details following each other in large quantities and considering it as the highest truth, what has been remarked by people in passing, considered important. These are reasons why the style of this novella has often been compared to that of Gogol's stories . The novella is one of Iskander's greatest successes, because the satirical style can be regarded as successful, in connection with a material that, according to the author, goes back to a newspaper report and is thus politically and contemporary, according to Meyer.

filming

In 1989, Mosfilm showed the film of the same name by Martiros Fanosjan (Russian Мартирос Фаносян).

German-language editions

  • Fasil Iskander: The Ziegentur constellation. Translated from the Russian by Hans-Joachim Grimm. 211 pages. Volk und Welt, Berlin 1968, DNB 457078499 (= spectrum , issue 4 - edition used); NA: Piper, Munich / Zurich 1973, ISBN 3-492-00366-4 .
  • Fasil Iskander: The Ziegentur constellation. Lump poor. Two stories. Translated from the Russian by Hans-Joachim Grimm. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1984 DNB 840706936 .

literature

  • Holt Meyer: "Iskander, Fazil '. Sozvezdie kozlotura ", in: Kindlers Literature Lexicon (no year)

Web links

In Russian language:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Holt Meyer: "Iskander, Fazil '. Sozvezdie kozlotura ", in: Kindlers Literature Lexicon (no year)
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 18, 5th Zvu and p. 148, 1st Zvu
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 4
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 16, 6. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 102, 13. Zvu
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 118, 1. Zvo
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 155, 2. Zvo
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 204, 14. Zvu
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 124, 1. Zvo
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 137, 7th Zvu
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 206, 3rd Zvo
  12. ↑ Russian The Ziegentur constellation (film)