Chukovsky, K. / Leah Grundig - приключения Kрокодила Kрокодиловича - 1930

"Crocodile" by REMI. Zaitsev Publishing House, Harbin.

A famous poem by K. Chukovsky. This book is interesting because of its place of publication – the Russian émigré colony in Harbin. The publishing house of Mikhail Vasilyevich Zaitsev (1901-1946) was founded in 1923 and ceased to exist in 1942. Over the past decade, he published more than 150 books, mostly fiction. His first major commission was a children's fairy tale for Parisian publishers (sic!). The typical print run for children's books was 1,000 copies. After the end of the Soviet-Japanese War and the establishment of a pro-Soviet puppet government in Northern Manchuria, Mikhail Vasilyevich shared the fate of many Russian émigrés who were unable or unwilling to move from Harbin to Shanghai. In 1946, he was arrested by SMERSH and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He apparently died tragically there.

One of Chukovsky's most famous fairy tales has been banned more than once. "The Crocodile" was first published in a small print run in the "For Children" supplement to Niva magazine, issues 1–12 in 1917. In 1919, under the title "The Adventures of Crocodile Krokodilovich," it was published as a separate book by the Petrosovet Publishing House. The tale was a great success and was reprinted several times. However, in the mid-1920s, it began to be criticized: the censors disliked "Petrograd," the "policeman," and the bourgeois girl Lyalya (and in "Fly-Tsokotukha," the "name day"). Reprints had to be fought for: Chukovsky claimed that "Krokodil" had begun the renewal of Russian children's poetry, and that an urban fairy tale could not be alien to children. However, the cautious censors were increasingly difficult to convince; some teachers also leaned toward their point of view. In August 1926, the publication of "Krokodil" was banned. Chukovsky described the subsequent events in his diary:

"Detained in Moscow by Gublit and transferred to the Main Directorate of Public Usage"
—August 1926. Cleared for publication by Gublit in Leningrad on October 30, 1927, after four months of red tape. But the permit didn't work, and the book was under review by GUS until December 15, 1927. I went to see Kr[upskaya]. She said I was being insolent. And on December 15, they gave me permission—but for the last time, and only five thousand copies. On December 21, Glavlit, ignoring GUS, finally banned "Krokodil." On December 23, it turned out it hadn't banned it completely, but it did ban "Krug." Refused. Then—to Molodaya Gvardiya, to see if they'd buy it. On December 27, at six o'clock in the evening, a GUS commission authorized 10,000 copies of "Krokodil."

Korney Chukovsky

In early 1928, the fairy tale was published. However, on February 1, Nadezhda Krupskaya's article "On Chukovsky's 'Krokodil'" appeared in Pravda. Krupskaya saw a parody of Nekrasov (though it was actually a parody of Lermontov), ​​but her main complaints were ideological:

"What does all this nonsense mean? What political meaning does it have? The hero, who grants freedom to the people to ransom Lyalya, is such a bourgeois touch that it will leave a mark on a child. Teaching a child to talk nonsense and read all sorts of nonsense may be acceptable in bourgeois families, but it has nothing in common with the education we want to give our younger generation. Such chatter is disrespectful to the child.

I think our children shouldn't be given 'Crocodile,' not because it's a fairy tale, but because it's bourgeois drivel."

Nadezhda Krupskaya

NB: Spots in places, illustrations tinted with chalk