“The Myth of Russia” in the Works by Curzio Malaparte

Abstract

The work of Italian writer Curzio Malaparte was greatly influenced by the “Soviet” theme. He visited the USSR for the first time as a journalist in 1929, worked as a war reporter on the Eastern front in 1943 and visited the Soviet Union again in 1956. In Malaparte’s numerous fictional and non-fictional works dedicated to his Soviet experience (The Intelligence of Lenin; Coup D’etat: The Technique of Revolution; Lenin the Good Fellow; The Volga Rises in Europe; The Kremlin Ball; Me, In Russia and In China) the author widely used various elements of the European “myth of Russia”. The article studies the influence of the “myth of Russia” on the writer’s views and describes how various components of the myth transform depending on political situation and on the evolution of Malaparte’s beliefs.

Keywords

• curzio malaparte
• ussr
• the myth of russia
• travelogue
• analytical essay
• report
• novel.