Since May of 1926 and till December of 1928, Leon Bazalgette (1873–1928), French writer,
translator, and literary critic who was a close friend of Stefan Zweig, wrote the weekly column Foreign literature in the French Communist party newspaper L’Humanité. Among the
materials published in the newspaper there are articles about Soviet writers and their most famous works. The article dedicated to Vsevolod Ivanov was published on March 14, 1928, after the publication of materials about Boris Pilnyak, Lidia Seifullina, Konstantin Fedin, and
before the publication of an article about Isaac Babel. In this paper we publish a translation
from French of Bazalgette’s article about Ivanov. This article provides a brief outline of
Ivanov's biography, which is based on his Autobiography, written for the VOX Bulletin in
1927, before his trip abroad, to France and Germany. This part of the article deals with several stages of his youth, his work in the printing house and performances in the circus, his participation in the revolutionary events in Siberia and the beginning of his writing career. To introduce the French reader to the work of Ivanov, Bazalgette chose the works of the writer
of the early 1920s, united by the theme of Civil war and partisan struggle: the novella
Armored Train 14-69, which was well known in Russia and was published by that time in
Paris in French translation, the stories Bull of times and Child. Bazalgette highlights the main
problem raised by Ivanov in these works – the cruelty and devaluation of human life in the
conditions of class struggle. Analyzing the three named works of Ivanov, the author of the ar-
ticle characterizes the features of his style, says about the saturation of his texts with convex,
strong, unexpected and vividly outlined images. At the same time, as the author of the article
notes, these three works reflect only the stage of Ivanov’s creativity, which went far ahead in
his stories and novellas written by him in the middle of 1920s. The notes to the translation of
Bazalgette’s article comment on the realities mentioned in the article and correct the mistakes
and inaccuracies made in this article.
Bazalgette L. L’année nue. L’Humanité, 1926, Le 3 novembre, p. 4.
Bazalgette L. Une fille perdue. L’Humanité, 1927. Le 7 septembre, p. 4.
Bazalgette L. Constantine Fédine. L’Humanité, 1928a. Le 11 janvier, p. 4.
Bazalgette L. Aux confins de la Sibérie avec Ivanov. L’Humanité, 1928b, Le 14 mars.
Bazalgette L. Cavalerie rouge. L’Humanité, 1928с, 23 mai, p. 4.
Erenburg I. Pis’ma [Letters]: v 2 t. T. 2. Pis’ma 1931–1967: Na cokole istorij... [On
the Plinth of History]. Prep. by B. Ya. Frezinsky. Moscow, Agraf, 2004, 640 p. (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Le train blindé numero 1469. Trad. du russe par Olga Sidersky. Paris,
Librairie Gallimard, 1927.
Ivanov Vs. Bronepoezd 14, 69: Povest’ [Armored Train No 14, 69, Story]. Krasnaya
nov’, 1922, no. 1, p. 75–124. (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Bronepoezd 14, 69: Povest’. Moscow, Gos. izd-vo [State Publishing
House], 1922, 78 p. (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Bronepoezd 14-69. Moscow, Veche, 2012, 352 p. (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Byk vremen [Bull of Times]. Petrogradskaja pravda [Petrograd
Pravda], 1922, 17 Feb. (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Dite [Child]. Krasnaya gazeta [Red Newspaper], 1922, 12 Feb. (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Loga: Rasskazy [Valeys. Stories]. Petrograd, Epokha [Era], 1922, 40 p.
(in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Partizany: Povest’ [Partisans: Novella]. Petrograd, Kosmist, 1921, 92 p.
(in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Partizany: Rasskaz [Partisans: A Story]. Krasnaya nov’ [Red New Life],
1921, no. 1, p. 3–40. (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Sed’moy bereg: Rasskazy [Seventh Bank. Stories]. Moscow, Petrograd,
Krug [Circle], 1922, 229 p. (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Sopki: Partizanskie povesti [Small volcanos, Partisan Novellas]. Moscow, Petrograd, Gos. izd-vo, 1923, 339 p. (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Tainoe tainykh. Prep. by E. A. Papkova, ed. by N. V. Kornienko. Moscow, Nauka, 2012, 566 p. (Literaturnye pamyatniki). (in Russ.)
Ivanov Vs. Tainoe tainykh: Rasskazy [Secret of Secret, Stories]. Moscow, Gos. izd-
vo, 1927 [1926], 192 p. (in Russ.)
Nikulin L. O myatezhnoy i gordoy molodosti [About Passionate and Proud Youth].
In: Vsevolod Ivanov – pisatel’ i chelovek: Vospominaniya sovremennikov [Vsevolod
Ivanov – a Writer and a Man. The Memories of Contemporaries. 2 nd ed. Moscow, Sov.
Pisatel’ [Soviet Writer], 1975, p. 161–174. (in Russ.)
Serge V. Constantine Fédine. L’Humanité, 1927a, Le 6 avril, p. 4.
Serge V. Les idées de Boris Pilniak. L’Humanité, 1927b, Le 25 mai, p. 4.
Vsevolod Ivanov. “Bronepoezd 14-69”: Konteksty epokhi [Vsevolod Ivanov. “Armored train 14-69”: Contexts of the Era]. Ed. by N. V. Kornienko, comp. by E. A. Papkova. Moscow, IMLI RAN, 2018, 736 p. (in Russ.)
Zweig S. Vcherashniy mir [Yesterday’s world]. Transl. from Germ. Intr. by D. Zatonsky, K. Fedin. Moscow, Raduga Publ., 1991, 544 p. (in Russ.)