Alexander Melentyevich Volkov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Меле́ньтевич Во́лков) (1891 – 1977) was a Russian novelist and mathematician. 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ...

He wrote several historical novels, but is mostly remembered for a series of children's books based on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author and the creator of one of the most beloved classics of childrens literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. ... The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a childrens story written by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by W.W. Denslow, and first published in 1900. ...

The first of these books is a loose translation of the first Oz book, with names changed and chapters added or omitted. First published in 1939 in the Soviet Union, the book became quite popular and in the 1960s, Volkov began writing his own sequels to the story. From 1963 to 1970 four more books in the series were published, with the sixth and final story published posthumously in 1982. Other authors such as Yuri Kuznitchov, Sergei Sukhinov and Leonid Vladimirsky (Volkov's original illustrator) have more recently written additional sequels in Russian, creating in effect an alternative series of Oz books. 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A series of books, starting with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, dealing with the history of the Land of Oz. ...

Volkov's Magic Land series, as it was called, was translated into many languages and was popular with children all over the Eastern bloc. Volkov's version of Oz seems to be better known than Baum's in some countries, for example in China, in Germany (formerly East Germany), and possibly in Arabic-speaking countries such as Syria. In Germany, one author has written his own set of sequels to Volkov's books. The first four books in the series have been translated into English — or retranslated, in the case of the first book — by Peter L. Blystone, and were published by Red Branch press in two volumes (two books a volume) in 1991 and 1993. During the Cold War, the Eastern Bloc (or Soviet Bloc) comprised the following Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Albania (until the early 1960s, see below), the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. ... East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), German Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), was a Communist state that existed from 1949 to 1990 in the former Soviet occupation zone of Germany. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

Volkov's Magic-Land books

• The Wizard of the Emerald City (first published in Russian in 1939, revised in 1959)
• Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers (1963)
• The Seven Underground Kings (1969)
• The Fiery God of the Marrans (1972)
• The Yellow Fog
• The Secret of the Abandoned Castle

1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ...