Biography
Alexander Melentjewitsch Volkov was the son of a former Russian sergeant and was born in today's Kazakhstan. His father taught him to read when he was four years old. He graduated from elementary school at the age of 12 at the top of his class and began studying mathematics in Tomsk in 1907. After completing his studies in 1910, he became a teacher first in Kolyvan in the Altai and then in Ust-Kamenogorsk at his former school.
In the 1920s, Volkov became school director in Yaroslavl, and in 1929 deputy head of the Workers' Faculty (Rabfak) in Moscow. At the same time, he passed several mathematics exams at the University of Moscow. From 1933 to 1953 he worked first as a lecturer, then as a lecturer at the chair for higher mathematics at the "State Institute for Non-ferrous Metals and Gold".
From 1917 Volkov also published literary works. In the 1930s he began learning the English language and quickly began translating English as well as French literature into Russian. Volkov made a name for himself primarily as a translator of the works of Jules Verne. The planned translation of Lyman Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz" became an independent retelling in which he took many things from the original, left out others and added others. So the story is missing in the porcelain city, but there is an encounter with a cannibal. The Munchkins become different races under the rule of the four witches, who are assigned different colors and characteristics. It was first published in 1939. A revised new edition appeared in 1959, now with the illustrations by Leonid Wladimirsky, which are no less important for the outstanding success.
After the new edition, there was an increasing desire for more stories. Volkov fulfilled these wishes, but now no longer retold any more of Baum's Oz stories, but created his own stories ("Magic Land series"), although he occasionally took over ideas from Baum's works. Already in the first sequel (1963) - "The Cunning Urfin and His Wooden Soldiers" - with the villain Urfin, Volkov created one of the most popular characters in Russian children's literature and one of the most complex villains in children's literature at all. By 1976, a total of five sequels to the original story followed. In the three later volumes, the main character switched from the original protagonist Elli to her younger sister Anne. Both traveled to the magic land mostly from different routes with different companions.
Among other things, what was special about Volkow's work was that the focus was always on an American girl and yet the class-struggle criticism was almost non-existent, although the human adventurers in magic land always fought alongside the simple and oppressed people. This in turn was ruled by witches, wizards and magical figures of their own free will, without there having been a social problem. This also makes Volkov's books something special among Russian children's literature. The success of the series was not only immense in the Soviet Union, but also in Eastern Europe, such as East Germany, the series is extremely popular to this day. In China or Arabia, Volkov's magic world is still far better known than the world created by Baum.
