The detektiv, Russia's version of the murder mystery, has conquered
what in Soviet days loved to call itself 'the most reading nation
on earth.' Most Russians don't read much Tolstoy, but they devour
the lurid covers and cheap paper of the detektivs by the millions.
Serials based on the works of two of the most popular authors
(Andrei Kivinov and Aleksandra Marinina) have been hits of the last
few TV seasons, their characters now a part of Russian everyday
life. The ubiquity of the detektiv may puzzle Westerners, who may
conclude that this is a post-Soviet import like McDonalds. Not so
Russia sprouted its own versions of 'penny dreadfuls' as soon as
peasants came off the land and learned to read. The guardians of
Russia's 'high culture, ' however, were enraged by this pulpy
popular genre and so contrived under the Soviets to supress it,
making everyone read 'improving' and 'uplifting' literature
instead. Russia's junk readers hung on, though, snatching up the
few detektivs that made their way through censorship, until, in the
Gorbachev era, the genre blossomed as the perfect vehicle for
social criticism the detektiv talked about social problems in a way
that was exciting enough that people wanted to read it. When the
Soviet Union finally collapsed, one of the few things left standing
in the rubble was the detektiv which now is sold on every street
corner and read on every bus. The first full-length study of the
genre, Russian Pulp demonstrates that the detektiv is no knock-off.
Summarizing and quoting extensively from scores of novels, this
study shows that Russians understand law-breaking and crime,
policemen, and criminals in ways wholly different from those of the
West. After explaining why solving a crime is always a social
function in Russia, Russian Pulp examines the staples of crime
fiction sex, theft, and murder to demonstrate that Russians see
police officer and criminal, thief and victim, as part of a single
continuum. To the Russians, both chased and chaser are products of
human imperfection, separated from one another only by the
imperfect laws of human creation. What both criminal and policeman
seek -but seldom find -is the much rarer quality of justice.
Russian Pulp is intended for all students of Russia, from those
making first acquaintance to those who have worked for years to
understand this puzzling country and its people. Using the detektiv
and its counterpart the many mysteries and thrillers set in Russia
but written by Westerners as evidence, Russian Pulp demonstrates
that Russians and Westerners view the basic issues of crime, guilt,
justice, law, and redemption in such fundamentally different ways
as to make each people incomprehensible to the other. At the same
time, however, Russian Pulp also demonstrates that Westerners and
Russians alike share a passion for literary gore, pulp fiction
thrills, and the deep furtive pleasures of junk fiction.
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