Vladimov, Georgi

Vernyi Ruslan: Istoriia karaulnoi sobaki [Faithful Ruslan: The Story of a Guard Dog]

Frankfurt am Main: Posev, 1981. Item #1495

173 pages. 21 cm. In original cloth binding with illustrated dust jacket by Adam Rusak. Light wear to dust jacket.

A landmark of dissident literature, Vernyi Ruslan tells the story of a loyal guard dog raised in a Soviet forced labor camp, narrated from the dog’s perspective. The novella offers a harrowing allegory of obedience, dehumanization, and systemic cruelty, as Ruslan remains devoted to his training even after the camp is shut down. Though completed in the early 1970s, the book circulated in samizdat for over a decade before being published in the West. It was long attributed to Solzhenitsyn and eventually became one of the most famous émigré publications. It was broadcast by Radio Liberty, Deutsche Welle, and the BBC, and translated into nearly every major European language.

Georgii Nikolaevich Vladimov (1931–2003), born in Kharkiv, was a Soviet dissident writer and editor of the journal Grani. After his departure from the USSR in 1983, he continued to publish abroad. Vernyi Ruslan remains his most enduring and widely read work.

Price: $150.00