English-language edition

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (originally known as Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter du Petit "Vingtième", au pays des Soviets) is one of a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé. The series features young reporter Tintin as its hero. Image File history File links TintinSoviets. ... Image File history File links TintinSoviets. ... Georges Remi (May 23, 1907 – March 3, 1983), better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. ... Tintin and Snowy (Tintin et Milou) are world travellers and inseparable friends in The Adventures of Tintin. ...

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the first in this series. It was published by the first time in Le Petit Vingtième (the children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle) between 20 January 1929 and 11 May 1930, and appeared in album form in 1930. January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (132nd in leap years). ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

The story is a political satire, expressing Hergé's distrust of the Soviet Union and poking fun at its claim to have a thriving economy. According to Benoît Peeters' book (Le monde d'Hergé), the only source used by Hergé to create his story was the book entitled Moscou sans voiles written by Joseph Douillet, a former Belgian consul in Soviet Russia. The album was strongly criticized at its time for being anti-Soviet and right-wing politically. For such reasons, Hergé decided to withdraw the album from circulation in the 1930s. In 1973, a facsimile edition was launched, that immediately became a best-seller (100,000 copies sold only in that year). Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Benoît Peeters is a comics writer, novelist, and critic, born in Paris in 1956, but living in Belgium since 1978. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...

It is the only early Tintin adventure which Hergé did not redraw or colourise in later years, and, as a result, looks and feels very different from the other books.

ISBN 0867199032

Storyline

Tintin and his dog Snowy are sent on a mission to Moscow by the newspaper he works for. The train is blown up by an agent of the Russian secret police, the OGPU, and Tintin is blamed for the "accident". He is put in jail, but wrings his way out by deceit and disguise. He then steals a car and goes through several adventures before arriving in Moscow. He finds that the Soviets are making people vote for their list, which is among the present three, by pointing guns at them, and that apparently productive factories are just hollow shells intended to fool foreign visitors (British communists) by burning hay to produce smoke and hitting metals to imitate the sound of machinery. He also finds out the Soviets only hand out bread to starving young people if they agree to call themselves communists, otherwise they beat them. Tintin discovers that the Moscow region is facing famine through lack of wheat–the bulk of the crop being exported for propaganda purposes–so the communist leadership is planning to pillage nearby farms. He manages to warn several farmers of the approaching troops, but is again captured. Escaping across the snowy wastes, Tintin stumbles upon the secret cache of riches that Stalin, Lenin and Trotsky have stolen from the Russian people (including an ample supply of wheat and also vodka and caviar). Armed with this knowledge, he turns towards home again, via Berlin and another encounter with Soviet agents. Returning to Brussels, he is greeted with great pomp by the rapturous public. Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA: ) is the capital of Russia and the countrys principal political, economic, financial, educational and transportation center, located on the river Moskva. ... For other uses, see Train (disambiguation). ... A secret police (sometimes political police) force is a police organization that operates in secret to enforce state security. ... Obedinennoe Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie (or OGPU) (Combined State Political Directorate, also translated as All Union State Political Board) was the name of the secret police in the Soviet Union in one of the stages of its development. ... The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist party in the United Kingdom. ... Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... It has been suggested that Propaganda in the United States be merged into this article or section. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი; see Other names section) (December 21, 1879[1] – March 5, 1953) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and leader of the Soviet Union. ... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) ( April 22 (April 10 ( O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the founder of the ideology of Leninism. ... 1915 passport photo of Trotsky Leon Davidovich Trotsky (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Trotskii, Trotski, Trotzky) (October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 - August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist intellectual. ... Berlin is the capital city and a single state of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Emblem of the Brussels-Capital Region Flag of The City of Brussels Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, pronounced ; French: Bruxelles, pronounced in Belgian French and often by non-Belgian speakers of French; German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium, the French Community of...

Le Petit Vingtième actually staged a triumphant return of "Tintin" and "Snowy" to the North Brussels train station on Thursday 8 May 1930, which was reported in the paper. Hergé was in attendance. May 8 is the 128th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (129th in leap years). ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

Influences / References

In the alternative-dystopian timeline of the tabletop game Dark Future Games' Workshop humorously quoted Alan Moore being targeted by a Fatwa similar to the one plaguing novelist Salman Rushdie for publishing "Tintin in the Land of the Ragheads". Dark Future is a game by Games Workshop. ... Alan Moore Alan Moore (born November 18, 1953, in Northampton, England) is a British writer most famous for his work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels, Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. ... A fatwa (Arabic: ) plural fatāwa (فتاوى), is a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue. ... Salman Rushdie Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie, Urdu: , Hindi: on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is an Indian-born, ethnically Kashmiri, British essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent. ...

External links

• Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, in Tintinologist.org