Narrative
Moscow Stations
Москва-Петушки
Venedikt Yerofeyev · 1973
Synopsis
Venichka wakes up in an unfamiliar stairwell in Moscow, suitcase in hand. He looks for the Kremlin, which he has never seen, and his steps keep leading him back to Kursk Station. There he takes the suburban train to Petushki, where the woman he loves and his son are waiting for him, carrying a suitcase full of drink. The chapters bear the names of the stations along the route, and, from one to the next, Venichka drinks, philosophises and talks with his fellow passengers.
Context
The text first circulated in samizdat, then appeared in 1973, abridged and without authorisation, in the almanac Ami, in Jerusalem; Ymca Press brought out the complete edition in Paris in 1977. In the Soviet Union, a censored version appeared in 1988-1989 in the journal Trezvost i koultoura, before the full text of 1989. The French translation by Annie Sabatier and Antoine Pingaud appeared with Albin Michel, with an afterword by Michel Heller.
Who it is for
A short, comic narrative made up of monologues and digressions, which can be read in one sitting, in an evening.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the comic peak of the Brezhnev years, it has been translated into many languages.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.