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Vladimir Voĭnovich
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The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (European Classics) Paperback – March 29, 1995

by Vladimir Voinovich (Author), Richard Lourie (Translator)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 40 ratings
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Ivan Chonkin is a simple, bumbling peasant who has been drafted into the Red Army. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he is sent to an obscure village with one week's ration of canned meat and orders to guard a downed plane. Apparently forgotten by his unit, Chonkin resumes his life as a peasant and passes the war tending the village postmistress's garden. Just after the German invasion, the secret police discover this mysterious soldier lurking behind the front line. Their pursuit of Chonkin and his determined resistance lead to wild skirmishes and slapstick encounters.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    316 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Northwestern University Press
  4. Publication date
    March 29, 1995
  5. Dimensions
    5.13 x 1 x 7.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0810112434
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0810112438
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This extremely funny story is subversive because it illustrates what Marx never understood: that even under socialism human nature remains an unregenerate constant." —Time

"[It] cries out to be read and enjoyed by millions of ordinary readers. It has the potential to become one of the most popular Russian classics, for its humor is international, and its human meaning as profound and touching as what we have come to expect from Solzhenitsyn." —Times Literary Supplement

From the Back Cover

Ivan Chonkin is a simple, bumbling peasant who has been drafted into the Red Army. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he is sent to an obscure village with one week's ration of canned meat and orders to guard a downed plane. Apparently forgotten by his unit, Chonkin resumes his life as a peasant and passes the war peacefully tending the village postmistress's garden. Just after the German invasion, the secret police discover this mysterious soldier lurking behind the front line. Their pursuit of Chonkin and his determined resistance lead to wild skirmishes and slapstick encounters. Vladimir Voinovich's hilarious satire ridicules everything that was sacred in the Soviet Union, from agricultural reform to the Red Army to Stalin, in a refreshing combination of dissident conscience and universal humor.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Northwestern University Press; Reprint edition (March 29, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 316 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0810112434
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0810112438
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.13 x 1 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 40 ratings

About the author

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Vladimir Voĭnovich

Vladimir Voĭnovich

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
40 global ratings
Kindle version is unusable (don't waste your money)
1 Star
Kindle version is unusable (don't waste your money)
It looks like someone just tried scanning each page of a book and hoped it would work on a Kindle (it doesn't). The orientation is wrong. The text is cut off to where you'll lose a sentence between pages. It is unreadable. Unfortunately, I took to long to look at it and lost my opportunity to return it.
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Top reviews from the United States

John Stults
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Fun Read
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is a wonderful book and fairly quick read -- except when you have to stop to laugh. It is good to see the Soviets suffer the same type of organizational incompetence the US does. Reminds me of the time I was in Moscow a few days before the big May Day parade and during the practice the Red army troopers screwed around during practice as much as we did -- or perhaps I always had a bad attitude during parade practice. Anyway this follows the story of the good private and we see not only the Red Army at its finest but also the way the secret police reacts to friends ratting out their neighbors to get even or get ahead. Several standouts hit me such as his two rules 1) work slowly 2) delay your work since the higher ups might change their mind, as we did see when they ran off the crowd awaiting the WWII announcement and then rushed out to get them back. All in all this is a very good story and it is easy to see how the author was exiled and not invited back as the Soviet Union folded. This is well worth the time to read and even makes my reread list. I highly recommend the story. I guess the only complaint I have is it is only available in hard copy, no kindle version yet.
4 people found this helpful
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Michael Sandman
5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous - the funniest of satires, especially if you know a bit of Russian history
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
Year ago, I read this author's hilarious satire, Moscow 2042. When he passed away recently, the obituary mentioned thus book, and fortunately Amazon listed it. Even if you don't know a lot about the Soviet Union under Stalin, it's a very funny book, a comic opera of stupid coincidences and misunderstandings. But if you know about Stalin's repression and state terror, the satire comes through loud and clear. It's a wonder that Voinovich was merely kicked out of the Soviet Union in 1980 rather than being sent to prison, or worse. The setting is a Soviet collective farm somewhere in the middle of Russia. A Russian airfare plane has to make a forced landing due to a blown oil line, and a sad sack of a soldier is sent to guard it. His unit promptly forgets about him, and he beds down with local woman but continue to guard the airplane. It's June 1941, and the Germans invade Russia, at which point his unit sort of remembers him, and wild confusion ensues. If you've read any Gogol, you'll recognize the genre, but even if you don't know the literary or historical context, it's a great and very, very funny story.
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Phred
4.0 out of 5 stars Soviet era satire, is that is even possible?
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2023
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It is easy to understand why many reviewers of Vladimir Voinovich’s The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin to its Czech forerunner in The Good Soldier Švejk. Both characters are hapless peasants, drafted in the Army where their main goal is to finish their time and go home. In the case of Private Chonkin, he is a few days from his discharge and is the lest soldierly of his regiment. This makes him the obvious choice to be sent off base, to a remote village, with a few days supply of food and orders to stand watch over a crash laded aircraft from his unit. Guard duty is universally understood to be soul killing work, there being nothing to do but stand and watch and await relief. In Pvt Chonkin’s world no one can relieve a guard except the Corporal of the guard, the Sargent of the guard and maybe, but he is not sure a general. He has never met a general, but that seems like something a general should be able to do.

Very quickly he becomes bored and very quickly he catches the eye of the village post mistress. She is single and very appreciative to have a hard-working peasant- Albeit one in an army uniform, available to do yard work, prepare meals and be loyal after-hours company.

Somewhere in the vaster reaches of Mother Russia a war is about to happen. It will come as a surprise and will make desperate calls for soldiers and farm work. But that will be over there, in that part of the vastness of Russia. Over here is Pvt. Chonkin, his regiment has long since forgotten about him and the post mistress, her pig and cow are far more to Chokin’s liking.

All of this could be plot lines in The Good Soldier, or even added into the American comic strip Beetle Bailey. What makes this distinctly Russian are the steady broadsides at the expense of the Bureaucracy and the Soviet era’s dependence on fear. Russian humor has a long tradition of poking fun at the bureaucracy. Long before the Communists, government was repressive. Very senior people could make life miserable for their juniors. For a lower level bureaucrat being correct was a bad choice if, by being correct embarrasses his superior.

Early in the book, Chonkin’s sergeant while writing to his far away girlfriend, makes a strong case for staying in the Army, because he gets to push around lower ranking troops. He is suddenly in the presence of his captain who issues panicked, on the double orders ending for the sergeant any chance to waste his work day as was his wont. Of course, he will modify his letter accordingly.

Having been on the lookout for Russian humor, it is possible to anticipate some of the satire. Juniors quail before seniors, and in the absence of believers the local philosophy becomes the same as Pvt Chonkin’s: 1) work slowly 2) delay your work since the higher ups might change their mind. Voinovich adds in some clever takes against Soviet era science and its strange preference for the propaganda value of science rather than its actual possibilities. A local farmer becomes fixated on the notion of cross breading tomato and potato plants. The expected result being a plant with potatoes in the ground and tomatoes on its limbs. Our farmer is a man of science, dedicated to his goal and having attracted so favorable press he is left alone. Alone in this case means filling his house and his food with the crudest forms of fertilizers. Side notes the joke is slightly less successful in Russian, as the words for tomato and potato are not so much alike. The extended satire of the seriously evil, certain secret organization (the never named ‘smiling’ state police, NKVD) provides some of the best humor in the book.

Over all the satire in The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin can be heavy handed, but in that it is much like a lot of Russian satire. In the case of Vladimir Voinovich it did cost him his citizenship, and it did get him back during glasnost. Oddly Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed him to live out his 85 years without a fall from grace, or a window. Then again, Vionovich, also satirized Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
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Melissas Bookshelf
5.0 out of 5 stars Voinovich Masterpiece!
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2007
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This book served as my introduction to Vladimir Voinovich. It has to be one of greatest Soviet satires ever written.

If you are going to read this book you MUST also read "Pretender to the Throne The Further Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin". "Pretender to the Throne" is essentially part II of this book and, in my opinion, even better than part I. Voinovich masterfully unfolds the chaos of the Soviet Union through the simple life of Ivan Chonkin, a common Russian soldier. This book will leave you laughing outloud.

I highly recommend this and other works by Voinovich. Voinovich should have a place in every Russian Literature library!
4 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle version is unusable (don't waste your money)
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2022
Verified Purchase
It looks like someone just tried scanning each page of a book and hoped it would work on a Kindle (it doesn't). The orientation is wrong. The text is cut off to where you'll lose a sentence between pages. It is unreadable. Unfortunately, I took to long to look at it and lost my opportunity to return it.
Customer image
Kindle Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle version is unusable (don't waste your money)
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2022
It looks like someone just tried scanning each page of a book and hoped it would work on a Kindle (it doesn't). The orientation is wrong. The text is cut off to where you'll lose a sentence between pages. It is unreadable. Unfortunately, I took to long to look at it and lost my opportunity to return it.
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John Desmond
5.0 out of 5 stars Compares to Gogol or Zinoviev
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2019
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What’s amazing is that this was written during the Soviet era (post Stalin of course) and the author got away with poking fun at the communist system. This would have got him shot a couple of decades earlier.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars wit, irony and absurdity -- a great book
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2007
Verified Purchase
This was a fantastic book. A bit odd from the Western perspective at first but by the time I reached the end all of the threads of the story wove together into a wonderful picture. I was rolling on the floor laughing and making my poor husband listen to stories about various characters. I would highly recommend finding a copy of this. It is a quick read and a great insight into Russia's (SSR's) recent history.
2 people found this helpful
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Jim Mayo
5.0 out of 5 stars Timely Read
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2018
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Important for view of dissent in Soviet Russia especially in light of the author's recent death.
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Top reviews from other countries

Ian Wright
5.0 out of 5 stars All good.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 14, 2020
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All good.
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Maelen Moonsinger
1.0 out of 5 stars Awful quality
Reviewed in Canada on October 27, 2022
Verified Purchase
Refunded because the quality was totally unacceptable. It was scanned as a graphic from a marked-up copy and the scanned text was not the same size on different pages. Worst of all, it was misaligned so that the block of text was on its side and thus almost unreadable. A completely incompetent effort at producing an e-book. Whoever did it, and whoever checked it, should be disciplined.
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