Synopsis
Unavailable for twenty years, this harrowing allegory of obedience to authority is esteemed as “one of the defining literary texts of the post-Stalin period.” (The Guardian)
Set in a remote Siberian depot immediately following the demolition of one of the gulag’s notorious camps and the emancipation of its prisoners, Faithful Ruslan is an embittered cri de coeur from a writer whose circumstances obliged him to resist the violence of arbitrary power. “Every writer who writes anything in this country is made to feel he has committed a crime,” Georgi Vladimov said. Dissident, he said, is a word that “they force on you.” His mother, a victim of Stalin’s anti-Semitic policy, had been interred for two years in one of the camps from which Vladimov derived the wrenching detail of Faithful Ruslan. The novel circulated in samizdat for more than a decade, often attributed to Solzhenitsyn, before its publication in the West led to Vladimov’s harassment and exile.
A starving stray, tortured and abandoned by the godlike “Master” whom he has unconditionally loved, Ruslan and his cadre of fellow guard dogs dutifully wait for the arrival of new prisonersâ but the unexpected arrival of a work party provokes a climactic bloodletting. Fashioned from the perceptions of an uncomprehending animal, Vladimov’s insistently ironic indictment of the gulag spirals to encompass all of Man’s inexplicable cruelty.
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About the Author
Georgi Vladimov wrote for Novy mir until resigning from the Soviet Writers’ Union in 1977, whereupon he established an office of Amnesty International, an officially outlawed organization. Vladimov emigrated to Germany in 1983 and was stripped of his Soviet citizenship. His novel A General and His Army won the Russian Booker Prize in 1995. Vladimov died in Frankfurt in 2003.
A distinguished translator of Gorky, Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, and Solzhenitsyn, Michael Glenny died in 1990 in Moscow.
Language Notes
Text: English, Russian (translation)
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Faithful Ruslan
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Hardcover. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G067124633XI5N00
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Faithful Ruslan
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Hardcover. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Former library book; Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G067124633XI5N10
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Faithful Ruslan
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Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Missing dust jacket; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G067124633XI3N01
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Faithful Ruslan
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Hardcover. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G067124633XI5N00
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Faithful Ruslan
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
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Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G067124633XI3N00
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Faithful Ruslan
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
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Hardcover. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G067124633XI5N00
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Faithful Ruslan
Seller: BookHolders, Towson, MD, U.S.A.
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Condition: Good. [ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ][ Ships Daily ] [ Underlining/Highlighting: NONE ] [ Writing: NONE ] [ Edition: First ] Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub Date: 4/15/1979 Binding: Hardcover Pages: 220 First edition. Seller Inventory # 6947986
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Faithful Ruslan
Published by
Simon and Schuster, 1979
ISBN 10: 067124633X
ISBN 13: 9780671246334
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Brused Books, Pullman, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Acceptable. First Edition. Good hardcover in acceptable dust jacket. No marking inside. Solid binding. Red cover with black illustration of dog on front and bright gilt lettering on spine. Cover is rubbed along edges and has bumps to corners. Dust jacket shows wear. Seller Inventory # 045053
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Faithful Ruslan. The Story of a Guard Dog. Translated by Michael Glenny. Introduction by Richard Adams.
Published by
Simon & Schuster. New York., 1979
ISBN 10: 067124633X
ISBN 13: 9780671246334
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Richard Peterson-Bookseller, Kingston, ON, Canada
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. The book is bound in orange decorative boards with a black spine all clean, bright & unmarked. Like new. The number line goes to 1. The dust jacket is price clipped and has very light wear along the top edge. No chips or tears. Very nice copy. Seller Inventory # 5927 (Box 272)