Two friends (Vladimir Voinowitsch)
Two friends ( Russian Два товарища Dwa towarishcha ) is a novel by the Soviet writer Vladimir Voinowitsch , which appeared in the January 1967 issue of the Moscow literary magazine Nowy Mir . The transmission by Agathe Jais brought Hanser to the German-language book market in Munich in 1969.
content
The first-person narrator Valery Sergeyevich Vashinin, called Valera, has fulfilled his dream; became a pilot . At the flying school he flew solo loops , had to catapult himself once and even roared through the air faster than sound . Walera tells the story of his success.
An anonymous city in the Soviet province around 1965: Together with his friend Anatolij Boschko, called Tolik, the then 19-year-old worked in a factory that made suits for space travelers . More precisely, Walera and Tolik were allowed to nail the boxes together for the transport of the Stratonaut suits. The friends also spend their free time together; get to know and love this or that young girl. Once they both sneak into a group of young people who are allowed to parachute on the city airfield. The enterprise goes wrong at the last moment. Walera and Tolik are not on the strict trainer's list. Walera is lucky in misfortune; meets his long-time schoolmate Slawka Perkow on the airfield. He takes him on a training flight. After Walera was allowed to fly a few figures exactly on Slawka's respective command, he absolutely wants to become a pilot and applies for it. Walera's single, worried mother goes to the director and actually has the request withdrawn. According to the mother's wish, the son should study at the Moscow "Energetic". Never mind, says Tolik. Walera should try his luck with the army through basic military service . That works.
The main narrative point: Actually, the first-person narrator in the novel ponders a question that is paraphrased as follows: “Is Tolik my friend?” Valera has to say no. Because in their free time on one of their forays through the hometown mentioned above, the gang of bums Grek got in their way. Two of his cronies had held Valera and Tolik had to beat the friend at Grek's orders. Tolik had refused at first, then hesitantly and finally, out of necessity, struck harder. Valera cannot forgive such behavior of the friend even at the time of the narration.
Adaptation
- 2001 Russia : Two Comrades , a film by Valeri Jurjewitsch Pendrakowskij with Juri Moseitschuk as Valera and Michailo Oleksandrovich Tarabukin as Tolik.
reception
- After Kaempfe compared the novel with Akssionov's deficit Faßleergut (Russian Затоваренная бочкотара, 1968) and Gladilin's work (Anatoly Gladilin, born August 21, 1935), he sums up that Woinowitsch's “story runs and ends far less harmless than it begins”. The author “critically committed to socialism” belongs to the “Soviet liberals”.
German-language editions
- Vladimir Voinovich: Two friends. Novel. Translated from the Russian by Agathe Jais. With an afterword by Alexander Kaempfe . Hanser, Munich 1969, (dtv 1974: ISBN 3-423-00982-9 )
- Vladimir Voinovich: Two friends. Novel. Translated from the Russian by Agathe Jais. With an afterword by Alexander Kaempfe. Ullstein (No. 20554), Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-548-20554-2 (edition used)