Tintin in the Land of the Soviets

Compiled by Irene Mar Last updated:

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets

Black & white. Hardback.

© Hergé / Tintinimaginatio

Original French title

Tintin au Pays des Soviets

Plot

Tintin and Snowy set off for Soviet Russia, where Tintin is to report for Le Petit Vingtième. In Germany a Soviet agent bombs their train and makes Tintin look guilty; he is arrested, but escapes. Once in Russia, he finds factories faked for foreign visitors, an election held at gunpoint and better-off peasants whose grain is seized. All the while, the secret police keep trying to stop him.

Notes

This first adventure of Tintin appeared in 1929 in a children's supplement to a Belgian daily newspaper, Le Vingtième Siècle. Hergé's satire on the Soviet state was very much of its time. Soviet propaganda to persuade the world outside Russia that the economy was booming was a particular target for Hergé, as were the activities of the secret police, the OGPU. Publication in Le Petit Vingtième began on 10 January 1929. In 1930 the adventure was issued in album form, now a very rare book and greatly sought after, the 500 copies being numbered and signed "Tintin et Milou". There were, it is believed, nine subsequent editions, differing only in the layout of the print on the title page. [Aaron Remick]

According to Benoît Peeters, the only source Hergé used when making this album was "Moscou sans voiles", a book from 1928 by Joseph Douillet. Douillet was the Belgian Consul in Rostov. Some of the scenes from the the album was taken directly from Douillet's book including the voting scene. [BP p.26]

Herge was just twenty-three when he wrote this first Tintin story. And it shows - the frames on each page literally resonate with his youthful exuberance! [AD]

Publication history

First published in Le Petit Vingtième between 10 January 1929 and 11 May 1930. Published in book form in 1930. Re-published in book form in 1973 as part of Les Archives d'Hergé.

English editions

  • 1989 - Sundancer (London). Translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner. Black and white facsimile. Hardback. ISBN: 2203020016.
  • 1999 - Methuen (London). Translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner. Black and white facsimile. Reprinted in 2001. Hardback. ISBN: 0416197655.

Trivia

  1. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the only book where we see reporter, Tintin, actually file a despatch. [AI]
  2. This is the only Tintin adventure to not be colourized. [AD]

Title in other languages

  • Bengali - Soviet Deshe Tintin [SBiswas]
  • Danish - Tintin in Sovjet
  • Dutch - Kuifje in het land van de Sovjets
  • Finnish - Tintti Neuvostojen maassa
  • Farsi/Persian - Tantan dar Estanbool Khabarnegar Foroodgah
  • German - Tim im Lande der Sowjets - German
  • Indonesian - Tintin Di Soviet [Indira edition title] / Tintin Di Tanah Soviet [Gramedia edition title]
  • Japanese - タンタン　ソビエトへ Tintin, Sobieto he / Tintin, Soviet e [publication date: 30 Sep 2005]
  • Norwegian - Tintin in Sovjetunionen
  • Portuguese - Tintim no pais dos Sovietes
  • Spanish - Tintin en el pais de los soviets
  • Swedish - Tintin i Sovjet
  • Turkish - Tenten Sovyetler'de

Next album: Tintin in the Congo

Credits

Maintained by Irene Mar.

Contributors and sources: Etienne Chevalier, Anthony Durrant, Chikahiro Masami, Sauvik Biswas, Antonino Ioviero, Syaiful Bahri, BP = Tintin and the world of Hergé by Benoît Peeters. London: Methuen, 1989.

Discuss it

Have something to add? Discuss it in the forums →