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Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
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Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1930) (edit title/settings)

by Hergé (Author) (edit contributors)

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Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (originally known as Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter du Petit "Vingtième", au pays des Soviets) is the first of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé. The series... read more

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Summary edit see section history

Tintin, a reporter for Le Petit Vingtieme, and his dog Snowy are sent on assignment to the Soviet Union. Departing from Brussels, his train is blown up en route to Moscow by an agent of the Soviet secret police, the OGPU. Tintin survives and is blamed by the authorities in Berlin for the... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Tintin, a reporter for Le Petit Vingtieme, and his dog Snowy are sent on assignment to the Soviet Union. Departing from Brussels, his train is blown up en route to Moscow by an agent of the Soviet secret police, the OGPU. Tintin survives and is blamed by the authorities in Berlin for the "accident". He is put in jail and even taken to a torture chamber, but escapes (here and in later imprisonments, which are common) by deceit and disguise. He then steals a car and goes through several adventures before eventually reaching Moscow. In observing a Soviet election, Tintin finds that the Communists coerce people to vote for their list by pointing guns at them, and that apparently productive factories are just hollow shells intended to fool British communists by burning hay to produce smoke and hitting large sheets of corrugated iron to imitate the sound of machinery. In wandering the streets of Moscow, he discovers that Soviet authorities hand out bread to starving children only if they declare themselves Communists; if they fail to do so, the children are beaten and refused food. Due to the relegation of the bulk of Russia's wheat crop to export, so as to maintain the illusion that Russia is wealthy and can therefore afford to send huge quantities away, Moscow is experiencing severe famine. Thus, the Communist leadership plans to pillage productive farms. Tintin manages to save several kulaks by warning them of the approaching troops, but is again captured when he attracts the attention of a military officer. Escaping across the snowy wastes, Tintin stumbles upon the secret cache of riches that Stalin, Lenin, and Trotsky have stolen from the Soviet people (including an ample supply of wheat, vodka, and caviar). Armed with this knowledge, he flees Russia via airplane, landing in Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, where he has a final encounter with OGPU agents who attempt to dispose of him before he can reveal what he has seen in the U.S.S.R. Finally returning to Belgium, he is greeted with great pomp by the rapturous public, arriving to a tremendous reception in the Grand Place in Brussels.

Le Petit Vingtième actually staged a triumphant return of "Tintin" and "Snowy" to the North Brussels train station on Thursday 8 May 1930, which was reported in the paper. Hergé was in attendance. A large crowd appeared for the occasion. Playing the part of "Tintin" was 15-year-old boy scout Lucien Pepermans (source: Le Figaro Tuesday 2 May 2000).

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Tintin: Tintin is a young Belgian reporter who becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he takes heroic action to save the day. Almost every adventure features Tintin hard at work in his investigative journalism, but he is seldom seen actually turning in a story without first getting caught up in some misadventure. He is a young man of more or less neutral attitudes and is less colourful than the supporting cast. In this respect, he represents the everyman. However, he does not seem to have a boss, nor any coworkers, nor an employer of any kind.We never learn his surname. It is stated, though, in the opening panel of the first book, that he works for Le Petit XXe and is one of their top reporters.
  • Snowy: Snowy, a white Fox terrier, is Tintin's four-legged companion. They regularly save each other from perilous situations. Snowy frequently "speaks" to the reader through his thoughts (often displaying a dry sense of humour), which are supposedly not heard by the human characters in the story except in Tintin in America, wherein he explains to Tintin his absence for a period of time in the book.Like Captain Haddock, Snowy is fond of the Loch Lomond brand of whisky, and his occasional bouts of drinking tend to get him into trouble, as does his arachnophobia.
  • Captain Archibald Haddock: Captain Archibald Haddock, a seafaring captain of disputed ancestry (he may be of Belgian, French, or British origin), is Tintin's best friend, and was introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws. Haddock was initially depicted as a weak and alcoholic character, but later became more respectable. He evolves to become genuinely heroic and even a socialite after he finds a treasure captured by his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock (François de Hadoque in French), in the episode Red Rackham's Treasure. The Captain's coarse humanity and sarcasm act as a counterpoint to Tintin's often implausible heroism; he is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter seems too idealistic.Captain Haddock lives in the luxurious mansion Marlinspike Hall (&quot;Moulinsart&quot; in the original French).Haddock uses a range of colourful insults and curses to express his feelings, such as &quot;billions of blue blistering barnacles&quot;(Sometimes just &quot;blistering barnacles&quot;, &quot;billions of blistering barnacles&quot;, or &quot;blue blistering barnacles&quot;.), &quot;ten thousand thundering typhoons&quot;(Sometimes just &quot;thundering typhoons&quot;.), &quot;troglodyte&quot;, &quot;bashi-bazouk&quot;, &quot;kleptomaniac&quot;, &quot;ectoplasm&quot;, &quot;sea-gherkin&quot;, &quot;anacoluthon&quot;, &quot;pockmark&quot;, &quot;nincompoop&quot;, &quot;abominable snowman&quot;, &quot;nitwits&quot;, &quot;scoundrels&quot;, &quot;steam rollers&quot;, &quot;parasites&quot;, &quot;floundering oath&quot;, &quot;blundering Bazookas&quot;, &quot;popping jay&quot;, &quot;bragger&quot;, &quot;pinheads&quot;, &quot;miserable slugs&quot;, &quot;ectomorph&quot;, &quot;maniacs&quot;, and &quot;freshwater swabs&quot; but nothing that is actually considered a swear word. Haddock is a hard drinker, particularly fond of rum and of Loch Lomond whisky. His bouts of drunkenness are often used for comic effect. Hergé stated that Haddock's surname was derived from a &quot;sad English fish that drinks a lot.&quot;<1> Haddock remained without a first name until the last completed story, Tintin and the Picaros (1976), when the name Archibald was suggested. Tintin and Alph-Art maintained this suggestion by having him introduce himself as such.
  • Professor Cuthbert Calculus (Professeur Tryphon Tournesol {Prof. Sunflower} in French): Professor Cuthbert Calculus (Professeur Tryphon Tournesol {Prof. Sunflower} in French), an absent-minded professor and half-deaf physicist, is a minor but regular character alongside Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock. He was introduced in Red Rackham's Treasure, and based partially on Auguste Piccard, a Swiss physicist. His appearance was initially not welcomed by the leading characters, but through his generous nature and his scientific ability he develops a lasting bond with them. He has a tendency to act in a very aggressive manner when someone says he's "acting the goat." He also often, due to his deafness, misunderstands what people are saying, making them repeat themselves, and still getting it wrong. This in particular seems to annoy Captain Haddock.
  • Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond): Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond) are two bumbling detective twins, with the only discernible difference being the shape of their moustaches. They provide much of the comic relief throughout the series, being afflicted with chronic spoonerism, and are shown to be mostly incompetent in their tasks. The detectives were in part based on Hergé's father and uncle, identical twins who wore matching bowler hats. While their different names would suggest that they are not related, they are confirmed to be identical twins in the original French-language version of Red Rackham's Treasure.
  • Bianca Castafiore: Bianca Castafiore is an opera singer whom Haddock absolutely despises. She seems to constantly be popping up wherever he goes, along with her maid Irma and pianist Igor Wagner. She is comically foolish, whimsical, absent-minded, and talkative, and seems unaware that her voice is shrill and appallingly loud. Her speciality is the Jewel Song (Ah! je ris de me voir si belle en ce miroir) from Gounod's opera, Faust, and sings this at the least provocation, much to Haddock's dismay. She tends to be melodramatic in an exaggerated fashion and is often maternal toward Haddock, of whose dislike she remains ignorant. She often confuses words, especially names, with other words that rhyme with them or of which they remind her; "Haddock" is frequently replaced by malapropisms such as "Paddock," "Harrock," "Padlock", "Hopscotch", "Drydock," "Stopcock", "Maggot", "Bartók", "Hammock", and "Hemlock," while Nestor, who is Haddock's butler, is confused with "Chestor" and "Hector." Her own name means "white and chaste flower," a meaning to which Prof. Calculus refers when he offers a white rose to the singer in The Castafiore Emerald. She was based upon opera divas in general (according to Hergé's perception), Hergé's Aunt Ninie, and, in the post-war comics, on Maria Callas.
  • Nestor: The butler
  • General Alcazar: The South American leader
  • Jolyon Wagg (Séraphin Lampion in French): An (infuriating, to Haddock) insurance salesman
  • Kalish Ezab: The Arab emir
  • Abdullah: The emir's mischievous son
  • Chang: The loyal Chinese boy
  • Dr. J.W. Müller: The evil Nazi German doctor
  • Cutts: A local butcher that is repeatedly called by accident by Haddock and whose phone number is repeatedly mixed up with Haddock's
  • Rastapopoulos: The criminal mastermind
  • Allan: Rastapopoulos' henchman and formerly Haddock's first mate
Show all 16 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Watch out... He's a foreign journalist... I already tried to silence him! He must disappear... accidentally!!!”
    A Soviet politico
  • “Those factories are running a bit too well... Let's see! ?! Great snakes!... Just stage effects!... They're simply burning bundles of straw to make smoke come out of false chimneys!”
    Tintin

Setting & Locations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

AT "LE PETIT XXE"; WE ARE ALWAYS EAGER TO SATISFY OUR READERS AND KEEP THEM UP TO DATE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Table of Contents edit see section history

No chapters

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 25 in Tintin. (standard series)

Followed by Tintin in the Congo.

This is book 445 of 986 in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Hergé (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Hergé (Illustrator)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: French
Publisher: Le Petit Vingtième
Country: France
Publication Date: 1930
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 48

Classification edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Children's comics. Tintin is certainly a comic and young children may enjoy his adventures, but few would understand the satire and underlying doubt about the viability of the Soviet system.

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