In 2019, the third chapter of the John Wick franchise graced the movie screen, following the continuing adventure of the titular hitman on his quest for revenge. The opening scene of the film sees John Wick go to the library and check out Aleksandr Afanas’ev’s “Russian Folktale.”
For most viewers, the book’s presence was a one-off device to push the plot forward (serving both as a stash of equipment and a weapon). The last time OU included a course on Afanas’ev’s folktales was Spring 2019.
Aleksandr Afanas’ev was a Russian ethnographer and folklorist who worked to catalog and publish nearly 600 Russian folktales across several volumes. His work in the cataloging of Russian Folk history has earned him comparisons to similar catalogists like “The Brothers Grimm.”
Contemporary to Afanas’ev were authors like Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekov’s collective works in literature have been canonized. Tolstoy’s works appear in many must-read lists. While Chekov’s theories on writing eventuate in the principle of “Chekov’s gun.”
These authors retain their relevance even today, with author George Saunders including them in his novel on writing “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.” Saunders describes the importance of these authors in every literary moment with the following quote, “[Russian literature is] a resistance literature, written by progressive reformers in a repressive culture, under constant threat of censorship, in a time when a writer’s politics could lead to exile, imprisonment, and execution.” Often the mundane stories of Russian life were deeply rooted in the subject of humanity, and brought these works under harsh scrutiny in the turn of the century.
The Russian Revolution brought new eyes to the folklorists as all writing was brought under the Union of Soviet Writers. The idea was to place all of literature—including Folklore—under a single banner of strict editing. The goal was to foster a socialist culture, working from fairy tales to novels.
Following the rise of Stalin in Russia was a vast censorship of the arts. Criticism of the government itself was often censored and often equated to dissident thought. The only literature approved by the party without a need for censorship were fairy tales.
Fairy tales contain cultural norms constructed within morality tales. Stories of greedy kings being punished and the power of the working class matched the socialist ethics of the USSR.
Comparatively, literature of the period took on new layers of complexity. Due to strict processes of censorship in the guise of editing, portions of novels were removed. To preserve the meaning of their novels, authors often turned to speculative fiction—science fiction and magical realism—to hide meanings behind layers of metaphor.
The most popular duo working in this period was Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The brothers wrote a wide body of acclaimed science fiction that have been adapted across media and translated into several languages.
Their most famous novel, “Roadside Picnic” depicts human encounters with extraterrestrial beings. The narrative is marked by its layers of metaphor, which worked to hide the themes of the text including the meaning of human existence, society and classism.
OU’s recent choice to eliminate Russian entirely from the course catalog comes as a misstep for the university. The possibilities to experience new cultures and languages are lost to students, while the rich literary history of a nation is pushed to the fringes of the student curriculum.
The material in this article only serves as a small in-road into a larger Russian network. Without a Russian program, OU has lost a connection to this history, at a point we need to understand Russia the most as Russia’s war in Ukraine is fueled by former Soviet practices. The absence of Russian course offerings hopefully marks a small period in the history of Ohio University, since a whole world of art has been taken away from a generation of students.
Benjamin Ervin is a senior studying English literature and writing at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Benjamin know by emailing him be425014@ohio.edu.
