Chichikov's adventures

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Mikhail Bulgakov around 1935

The Adventures of Tschitschikows , also Tschitschikows Abenteuer ( Russian Похождения Чичикова , Pochoschdenija Tschitschikowa ), is a fantastic grotesque by the Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov , which - written in Moscow - appeared on September 24, 1922 in the Russian-language literary magazine Nakanune in Berlin . The Moscow publishing cooperative Nedra published the text in book form in 1925 as part of the Teufeliaden collection .

content

The first-person narrator - probably Mikhail Bulgakov - has a dream:

Manilow, Nosdrjow, Dershimorda, the coachman Selifan, Fetinja and others rise from the realm of the dead . Behind them, Pavel Ivanovich Tschitschikow arrives in his coach from the first half of the 19th century in the Soviet Russian city of Moscow, gets into an automobile and races in it to his old hotel. The house is just as dirty and full of vermin as it was a hundred years ago when Chichikov was last there. However, the guest will notice two differences. The sign “ Gasthaus” has been replaced by a dormitory with a number, and you now have to provide a written briefing. This is not a problem for Chichikov, because he knows the manager. Chichikov is lucky at all. Nobody reads the long questionnaire he has to fill out and the document is misplaced by the staff. The organizational talent Chichikov even surpasses the landowner Sobakevich in the procurement of coveted food rations. The entrepreneur Tschitschikow swindles himself from the Bolsheviks in a paper war of huge sums of capital. The securities must be dispatched to their destinations in three cabs. His trust, in which iron is made from sawdust, is causing a stir all over Moscow. Everything is allowed in this city. Tschitschikow's contribution to the supply of the Muscovites: He models the covering shop into a sausage factory. Tschitschikows can spend billions on his rented apartment. Over time, the state control commissions become suspicious and turn to Nosdrjow. The latter admits everything. Chichikov is a White Guard spy and a fraud. Chichikov is smarter than all these commissions put together. Before the state reaches him, he quickly mixes fake money with real money. Not even the devil can tell the bills. But the investigation is ongoing and brings the questionnaire to light in the above-mentioned inn in the basket for waste paper. Now you have it in black and white - Tschitschikow is a figure in Gogol and has traded in dead souls. Chichikov gave the address of the Moscow Pushkin memorial for one of his undertakings . This man, who has been entrusted with billions, must be caught. The Moscow commissions fail to prosecute. The first-person narrator can be charged with the pursuit of Chichikov. In no time he grabs the monster and lets him slit open his stomach in search of the billions. The values ​​slumber in it in the form of diamonds . Tschitschikow disappears into an ice hole at the behest of the successful writer-detective. The first-person narrator has three wishes. What does a Moscow writer want in 1922? New pants, a bag of clear sugar, and a low- power lightbulb . No, the writer wants a complete edition of Gogol's works. Whoops - it's on his table.

The narrator wakes up disillusioned; around him - nothing more than everyday life.

background

Ralf Schröder wrote in March 1994 that Lenin replaced war communism with the New Economic Policy in 1921 . The accompanying partial relapse into the worst capitalism is to blame for Bulgakov's nightmare . Gogolian ghosts from the dead souls would move in the text about Soviet Russia.

German-language editions

  • Master tales. Translated from the Russian by Aggy Jais ( The Doom. House No. 13. The Devil's Spook . Chichikov's Adventure ). Goldmann, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-442-07030-9

Output used:

  • Chichikov's adventures. Poem in 10 points with prologue and epilogue. Translated from the Russian by Thomas Reschke . P. 79–93 in Ralf Schröder (Ed.): Bulgakow: Teufeliaden. Stories. Volk & Welt, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-353-00945-0 (= Vol. 6: Collected Works (13 Vols.))

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Note on literary history in the afterword of the edition used, p. 335, 15. Zvo
  2. ↑ March 6, 2006, Antonia Häfner in Gertrud Maria Rösch's seminar, University of Heidelberg : Hundeherz , p. 10
  3. ↑ Russian Накануне - The evening before
  4. ↑ Russian Недра - the lap
  5. ↑ Russian Дьяволиада - Djawolijada
  6. ^ Note on literary history in the afterword of the edition used, p. 308, 8. Zvo