Folk Tales from the Soviet Union: Central Asia and Kazakhstan

Folk Tales From The Soviet Union

by Robert Babloyan (Compiler), Mirlena Shumskaya (Compiler), Mikhail Anikst (Designer)

Wonderful and beautifully illustrated folk tales from the formerly Soviet Union make up this collection. Five traditions of Central Asia are represented: Uzbek, Kirghiz, Tajik, Turkmen and Kazakh. Contents include: Three Brothers / Which Was the Biggest / Clever Ashik / The Padishah's Daughter and the Young Slave / The Greedy Kazi / Yarty-Gulok / A Mountain of Gems / A Bought Dream.

189 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Veenit Mavani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this one despite it being a book for kids. Was mainly attracted by the curiousity to find out what kind of books were read by kids in the Soviet Union, especially given the vast diversity in the countries that originally made the Soviet Union. I must say I was a bit disappointed that most stories, despite being from various countries started with a premise of the protagonist being from a poor family / orphan and opperessed by the Shah, landlord, King or Master. Subsequently, the protagonist through his/her kindness (actually, it was always a male protagonist, now that I think of it) and humility helps people and animals along the way and eventually becomes rich or leads a fulfilling life. I guess that's what folk tales are about, showing values to kids and also showing them a happy ending to inspire them to imbibe some of those values.

PS: The edition I read had 2 pages at the end indicating that although most stories talked about poverty, things have changed since the formation of Soviet Union. I felt that was an "interesting" addition to a kids folk tale book.

[julia paciorek]

zupełnie się nie spodziewałam, ze aż tak mi się to spodoba. świetne historie, baśnie zupełnie różne od słowiańskich/zachodnich. bardzo ciekawie było obserwować wartości, które później mogły mieć wpływ na komunistyczny ustrój tych państw. ilustracje były przepiękne i tworzyły niezwykły klimat

[T.F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the series of 5 books covering folk tales from across the Soviet Union. The Russian and Ukranian ones were more about slaying dragons and escaping from Baba Yaga and Koschei the Deathless. These stories are from a different region - most of the studies had more to do with brain and character than with brawn. Some of the stories went against the standard tropes. We had a poor man's son refusing to marry the king's daughter after accomplishing a bunch of tasks and emerging stronger. And we had other men of humble background leaving their royal father in law's fortunes and returning back to their own homes by their own means. Many of these stories were about oppressed people standing up for their self respect, using their wit to defeat the machinations of those in power and the like. That way they were different from the standard fairy tales which usually did not treat royalty as evil and have main conflict as the fight between common man and royalty. Instead usually the hero would protect royalty from external dangers such as dragons and demons and win their favor.

I want to talk about one story that was very different from the rest and fascinated me strangely. The one titles "Which Was the Biggest" - It is not really a story. But reads more like a puzzle. And has a kind of surreal feel. The story kind of turns our normal conception of size of familiar people and animals on its head and kind of stretches the imagination. It actually reminded me of a science fiction story I had read by Ken Liu about various alien civilizations of various sizes and forms.

Of course other than the stories I need to mention the nice waxy paper and the beautiful colorful illustrations that adorn the book. A gem in a bibliophile's collection.

[Bhante Sila · Rating 3 out of 5]

The environment and the political interferences of the common life at the time seem the same what we are experiencing today. It felt me so sorry about the innocent people who are struggling to survive with their self-respect and confidence.

[Clayton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Folk tales from Central Asia… it would be difficult to turn any of them into a Disney short or movie. Many included three events, people, things and had very fantastical events.

[snyoprzeszlosci]

Nie umiem oceniać bajek, więc sobie tego oszczędzę, ale ilustracje w tym wydaniu są piękne. Ponadto to ciekawe, jak wszystkie morały są połączeniem ogólnych nauk moralnych z radziecką propagandą.