Tintin in the Land of the Soviets

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
Black & white. Hardback.
Tintin © Hergé/Moulinsart.

Original French title

Tintin au Pays des Soviets

Publication history

First published in Le Petit Vingtième between 20 January 1929 and 11 May 1930. Published in book form in 1930. Re-published in book form in 1973 as part of Les Archives d'Hergé.

English edition:

1989 - Sundancer (London). Translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner. Black and white facsimile. Hardback. ISBN: 2203020016.

1999 - Methuen (London). Translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner. Black and white facsimile. Reprinted in 2001. Hardback. ISBN: 0416197655.

Related link:

First publication dates of The Adventures of Tintin

Plot

Tintin and Snowy are sent to Soviet Russia to report on the condition of life there. After overcoming many obstacles placed in their way by the Soviet authority, Tintin and Snowy reache Moscow where they discover the horrors of Communism.

Notes

This first adventure of Tintin appeared in 1929 in a children's supplement to a Belgian daily newspaper, Le Vingtième Siècle. Hergé's satire on the Soviet state was very much of its time. Soviet propaganda to persuade the world outside Russia that the economy was booming was a particular target for Hergé, as were the activities of the secret police, the OGPU. Publication in Le Petit Vingtième began on 10 January 1929. In 1930 the adventure was issued in album form, now a very rare book and greatly sought after, the 500 copies being numbered and signed "Tintin et Milou". There were, it is believed, nine subsequent editions, differing only in the layout of the print on the title page. [Aaron Remick]

According to Benoît Peeters, the only source Hergé used when making this album was "Moscou sans voiles", a book from 1928 by Joseph Douillet. Douillet was the Belgian Consul in Rostov. Some of the scenes from the the album was taken directly from Douillet's book including the voting scene. [BP p.26]

Herge was just twenty-three when he wrote this first Tintin story. And it shows - the frames on each page literally resonate with his youthful exuberance! [AD]

Trivia

  1. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the only book where we see reporter, Tintin, actually file a despatch. [AI]
  2. This is the only Tintin adventure to not be colourized. [AD]

Title in other languages

  1. Bengali - Soviet Deshe Tintin [SBiswas]
  2. Danish - Tintin in Sovjet
  3. Dutch - Kuifje in het land van de Sovjets
  4. Finnish - Tintti Neuvostojen maassa
  5. Farsi/Persian - Tantan dar Estanbool Khabarnegar Foroodgah
  6. German - Tim im Lande der Sowjets - German
  7. Indonesian - Tintin Di Soviet [Indira edition title] / Tintin Di Tanah Soviet [Gramedia edition title]
  8. Japanese - タンタン　ソビエトへ Tintin, Sobieto he / Tintin, Soviet e [publication date: 30 Sep 2005]
  9. Norwegian - Tintin in Sovjetunionen
  10. Portuguese - Tintim no pais dos Sovietes
  11. Spanish - Tintin en el pais de los soviets
  12. Swedish - Tintin i Sovjet
  13. Turkish - Tenten Sovyetler'de

< Official Tintin Books | Tintin in the Congo >

Maintained by Irene Mar
Contributors and sources: Aaron Remick, Etienne Chevalier, Anthony Durrant, Chikahiro Masami, Sauvik Biswas, Antonino Ioviero, Syaiful Bahri, BP = Tintin and the world of Hergé by Benoît Peeters. London: Methuen, 1989.

Last modified: 16 January 2012.