“Journey to the Edge of the Soviet Night”: Towards the History of the Publication of L.-F. Céline’s Debut Novel in the USSR

Abstract

The article focuses on the translation and publication of L.-F. Céline’s debut novel Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932) as an example from the history of Soviet cultural diplomacy in the 1930s. So far, the specialized literature has not given unambiguous answers to several questions related to the appearance of the incomplete Russian-language version of the text. The analysis of primary sources and book statistics, materials from central periodicals, and archival documents allows us to restore this unclear episode in the history of Stalin’s cultural diplomacy. The present study aims not only to restore the international context of the reception of Journey in the 1930s and to point out the probable motives behind the hastily realized translation but also to clarify the formal aspects of this enterprise — the number of editions, the dates of signing for printing and the actual print runs, their quantitative values, and formal and substantive differences. The article examines all three Russian-language editions (two editions by GIKhL and Goslitizdat and one another by Zhurgaz, which appeared from February 1934 to July 1935) and reveals structural and content differences in the introductory articles to the first two editions. In addition, the article traces the non-linear trajectory of Céline’s literary reputation in the pre-war USSR. It shows what factors influenced the attitude of the Soviet party and literary figures toward the French writer.

Keywords

• western-soviet literary relations
• louis-ferdinand céline
• voyage au bout de la nuit
• soviet publishing
• ivan i. anisimov
• serge romoff
• elsa triolet
• cultural diplomacy.