#russian oz

[witchesoz]

What’s the deal with Oz in Russia?

What’s the deal with Oz in Russia?

When L. Frank Baum created “The Wizard of Oz” in 1900, his wish was to create an “American fairytale”. And he certainly did – the Oz franchise became part of America’s mainstream culture, a beacon of American fiction, several landmarks in the United-States history.

It had such a huge success it ended up reaching Europe and Asia. And… one day it was bound to touch Russia. Except that, if you recall your history lessons, for the most of the 20th century, Russia and America were deadly enemies, the two megapowers that tried to invade the world and destroy each other. You can imagine that when Oz hit Russia, things were bound to be… interesting.

Interesting as in: Oz doesn’t exist in Russia. And yet it does.

In the 1930s, back when Russia was still the young Soviet Union, an English-speaking author named Alexander Volkov was searching a book to translate as a hobby. He found Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and loved it. Except he didn’t just translate it into Russian – he also adapted it to the Soviet culture, changed a few elements he didn’t particularly liked, added new adventures, renamed every character and location… And then published this very loose “translation” under the name “The Wizard of the Emerald City” in 1939.

This was a HUGE success in Soviet Union, and all of it was attributed to Volkov. Indeed, people rarely knew of Baum and his Oz series, and not all the editions of the book mentioned that it was a translation. Let’s also not forget that, since copyright rights did not exist at the time, it was all done without the knowledge or approval of the owners of the Oz name.

The book had such a huge success that Volkov wrote several sequels, at first loosely based on the sequels written by Baum, but that as time passed by became more and more their own thing, until there was no resemblance whatsoever. Volkov wrote five sequels to his original book, the last one written in 1975 (though it was published in 1982). They formed what is known as “Tales of the Magic Land”, Magic Land being the Russian equivalent of Oz.

This series became hugely popular in the Soviet Union/Russia. It got adapted into animated movies and live-action movies. Its popularity spread to all the countries forming the “Eastern World” in the Cold War: it was popular in Syria, in China, and in East Germany. So popular that… well, for the longest of times people did not realize that the series they worshipped was a copyright infringement of Oz. In fact, in those same countries, the Oz books and works are less known than the Tales of the Magic Land – in some, the Oz books are even not known at all, readers only heard of the Tales of the Magic Land. In fact, the modern webcomic “Black Brick Road of Oz” was assumed by many to be an adaptation of the Oz books, when in fact it was primarily an adaptation of the Tales of the Magic Land, with Oz as a secondary influence.

Now here’s where things get interesting. Tales of the Magic Land got the same fate as the Oz books in America – it was so popular that, despite the death of the author, the stories went on.

A man named Yuri Kuznetzov took on the series, and wrote five Magic Land books between 1992 and 2003. Then, another man named Sergei Sukhinov wrote his own Magic Land books – except that he started back at the original book, “The Wizard of the Emerald City”, and ignored all further sequels. This is how he created his ten-books series of “Emerald City”, between 1997 and 2004. Sukhinov’s sequels have been described as “Oz meets Tolkien”, indeed his goal was to expand the world of the Magic Land into a more complex and detailed world, and he put together a huge fight between good and evil, with as a main villain the evil warlock Pakir.

Sergei Sukhinov then went on with a second series, “Fairy Tales of the Emerald City”, a series of nine books (all published in the year 2000) that explores the childhood of the characters presented in the “Emerald City” series ; and even added in 2001 a prequel to the whole thing, called “Goodwin the Great and Terrible”, exploring the arrival of Goodwin (the Wizard’s equivalent) to Magic Land.

Even more authors made minor contributions to the Russian franchise, such as Sergei Zaitsev with his “The Iron Woodman and Ellie”, Lazar Steinmetz (two books) or Liza Adams (again, two books).

If you want to see some adaptations of this series (and I am not counting the few video games which were created), you can check: the animated mini-series “Adventures in the Emerald City” (1999-2000) ; the 2017 computer-animated movie “Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers”, or some of the live-action adaptations (there was one in 1973, and one in 1994 if I am not incorrect).

AND THAT BEING SAID…

There is one more string of sequels I did not mention, and this is where the story becomes crazy.

“Nikolai Bachnow” (a pseudonym for the couple formed by writer Klaus Moeckel and his wife Aljonna) wrote a series of eight books between 1996 and 2003, sequels to the Magic Land series… IN GERMAN! Because you see, while Aljonna Moeckel was Russian, Klaus was German. So yes, you have this Germany-only set of sequels of the Russian series.

It is so strange to think that Germany knows more of Oz in the West, more of the Magic Land in the East. It must result in some intense fandom wars…

- - - -

Just when you thought Oz was complicated enough... LET US INTRODUCED RUSSIAN OZ!

[cartoonqtpie]

And pt. 2! I tried posting this earlier but it never went through appearantly.

Anyway, I learned about the Russian Wizard of Oz so I wanted to draw Scraps meeting Strasheela, since as far as I know she has no Magic Land equivalent!

Also here's Scraps having fun with sewing pins. I might keep the look for her-

[ndemon93]

[buttercup-barf]

There's a whopping Two upcoming movies about Wizard Of Oz-adjacent media, and. Uhm. They certainly are gonna be movies, at least that I know for sure.

The most agonising part is that instead of the funny magic lesbians, I'm gonna be more mentally ill about these fucking things.

I would not be giving a cent of my money to a Russian-owned business of any kind, even if they weren't ridiculously overpriced, but...

They look so fucking stupid. I love them.

[the-microphone-explodes]

Someone had once said to me, that if Donald Trump stated that the sun rose in the west and set in the east, instead of rising in the east and setting in the west, his followers would believe him 100% without question. This statistic is proof of that, the people part of the Republican Party are willing to believe anything that comes out of that lying man’s mouth. It is practically a cult.

[dragon-razor-writings]

Ozpin: "Qrow, I alone am the reason shampoo has instructions."

[salamifuposey]

Shaped like a friend! Big beanie bag!! 😭💕💕

[ghostwanderer]

I like to thank @ndemon93 for exposing to this very cool and fascinating movie

P.s. I hate how the lion looks in the movie, I’d prefer @ndemon93’s version

(P.p.s. Sorry for empty space)

(P.p.p.s. You should check out @ndemon93s art)

[ozimagines]

(Got a request involving him so I figured I’d post this first just to lay the groundwork for what I think of him.)

Dating Nikolai Stanislavsky would include…

Want a man who’s Russian, from Russia, and was born in Russia? Have I got the man for you lol

Dude strikes up a conversation with you on the street. He thinks he’s more suave than he is.

Prides himself on being a gentleman. He offers you his seat on the bus.

“So, what is nice girl/guy/person such as yourself doing in a place like this?”

You can’t help but smile at the cliche. You tell him you’re just going to get groceries. He asks if he can come along, showing you his bag as well.

You go shopping, and he compares them to the shops in Russia, missing his home a little but also excited that he can get green apples year round at Walmart.

He’s charming, letting you enter anywhere first and holding the door for you. Making sure he walks in front of you to clear the aisle. Reaching things on shelves you can’t.

He’s old fashioned.

You thank him for everything, and he asks for your humber.

“Might need someone to show me around the city.”😘

He texts you “good morning” and “goodnight” every single day.

You flirt at first. He’s cute in a gentlemanly way.

You don’t start getting serious until he takes you out one day, and give you diamond jewelry that he can’t tell you where he got it from.

You start to understand why he’s so sparse in his details of his background.

When he feels he can trust you, he mentions that you may not want to mention his name to any police. You take the hint but are understandably a little freaked.

He promises you that he’s not there for violence, and you take him at his word.

He takes you in classy dates; bookstores where you get coffee and read, sushi bars where he surprises you with his knowledge of world cuisine, and art galleries that he gets early access to.

You decide to surprise him for a change. You find out there’s a famous Russian pianist in town doing a small concert.

You take him, not telling him what you’re taking him to.

First song is Romance by Dvorak. There’s a violinist there too, and the piano and violin almost seem like they’re talking to each other. Like the romance is between them.

His eyes are closed for the first song, he’s transported back to his home in Russia, when shit wasn’t going sideways, practicing the piano for his mother. 🥰

He grasps at your hands, holding them for the duration of the concert.

He thanks you profusely afterwards, holding your hands, face in your neck, kissing it softly.

He takes you back to his to make love that night.

Stanislavsky doesn’t fuck very often; he makes love.

Candles and soft music and silk sheets.

He kisses all over your body, lips touching every sensitive point, thrusting firmly but gently into you. 🥲

You cohabitate pretty quickly. I think Stanislavsky is pretty domestic.

He can cook like a BEAST.

Memorizes different recipes around the world.

His draniki (дранікі) are seriously orgasmic tho.

His kartoshka (Картошка) are also quite delicious but it’s literally impossible to fuck up anything chocolate.

Reads the paper every morning even though phones exist.

Not big into social media. Like really really on the outs.

When you send him videos you have to text him a link. 😂

Often wears jeans in casual mode. American jeans. Feel way different than the knock offs he’s used to. (Based on my non-American exs’ opinions)

Recreates that photo with you of the solider coming home and kissing that woman in the streets ⬇️

Exceedingly and disgustingly romantic

Like very Eastern European views of love and traditions

Insists on holding the door for you. Will genuinely be butthurt if you don’t let him.

His favorite place to kiss is right behind your ear. It’s intimate and it lets him smell whatever fragrance you’re wearing that day.

Gifts you with things you can use together; pajamas he’d like to see you in, perfumes/colognes for him to smell, puzzles you can work on together.

After dinner every night, you sit on the couch and read together

Not a big TV guy

Often turns on music so he can dance with you; simple waltz’s and such🎵

When he loves you, truly, he tells you.

He’s European, he doesn’t consider it weird to express love that way.

“I have something to tell you. Just sit. I love you. More than all else.”

He gets protective over you too

Not a super violent dude, but he does what he has to for you

Will put himself between you and anything he considers to be a threat.

He calls you Russian pet names, but in English so you can understand: “my beloved”, “little sparrow”, or “mousy”

You call him “Nikki”. He doesn’t like it but he knows you do. ☺️

“Nikki?”

*sigh* “Yes, my wondrously beautiful?”

Has cold feet in bed. I’m sorry, he just does. 🙃

He enjoys being kissed on his collar bone. Turns him on more than anything.

Enjoys going to bed early and waking up early. Loves to see the sunrise.

He proposes to you during a sunrise. You two are having coffee, and you bring him his just right.

Two hits black cane sugar and a splash of goat’s milk (lactose intolerant boi)

While the sun comes over the horizon, he leans in, kisses you, and slips something into your finger

It’s his great great grandmother’s engagement ring, a beautiful starburst emerald in the center.

“Ready for another adventure?”❤️

“I love you, Nikki.”

“I love you too, Y/N”😘

Bonus: I think he’d genuinely be interested in Native American culture. Like genuinely enthralled by their history and resilience. That’s the only way you can get him to watch TikTok is if he’s learning something, but he follows Tia Wood and Shiva Nova. (Or makes you follow them, lol)

[typicalhippiegirl]

...and that's why I live in a legal state

[witchesoz]

Oz... I mean Magic Land lore: More of Volkov

The fourth book of the Magic Land series was published in 1968: “The Fiery God of the Marrans”. If you remember, the Marrans or Leaper are the brutish population of extremely violent and xenophobic people living in the rocky wasteland between the Great River south of Emerald City and the Rose Land over which rules Stella the Good Witch.

This novel returns to the character of Urfin Jus. Ten years have passed since his defeat and he is still living in exile, with only two companions, the two first objects he gave life to: Topotun the gentle Bear-Rug, and Eot Ling, a wicked grimacing Wooden Clown. Despite all the time that passed, Urfin Jus still dreams of becoming the ruler of Magic Land. One day, a giant eagle names Carfax falls in Urfin Jus’ little garden, and Urfin nurses him back to health. Carfax is very thankful and agrees to help Jus as a returning favor. Urfin also ends up in possession of a cigarette lighter that Charlie Black forgot during his last visit. This two elements give Urfin enough material to prepare another wicked plan…

He decided to return to Magic Land despite his banishment, and went straight to the tribe of the Marrans. There, he tricked the simple-minded and primitive people into believing that he was a “fiery god” to be worshipped – for example the lighter is supposed to show that he can produce fire at will, something that greatly amazes the Marrans who don’t have exactly a great mastery of fire. Once Urfin settled himself as their gods, he orders the Leapers/Marrans to attack the rest of the land. They quickly conquer the Violet Land and then focus on conquering the Emerald City (note that this is the exact same strategy Urfin used for his previous attack, where he first conquered the Blue Land then attacked the Emerald City). Oh yes, and the Emerald City is now called the Emerald Island, because they dug a canal all around the city to add another layer of protection.

Hopefully Ellie comes to save the day as usual! Oh wait… no, scratch that, it was established right before that Ellie could never come back. So instead it is Ellie’s little sister, Annie, that goes on the adventure with her friend Tim. They arrive to Magic Land riding a… solar-powered mechanical mule. Okay. And they save the day with an all-seeing magic box (aka the “magic television” of Stella the witch), a magic circlet and… a volleyball. Yep. They defeat Urfin, and the guy ends up so ashamed that he flees to avoid more disgrace.

Some points about the book:

# The narration does not make it clear if it all happens ten or eight years after the previous book.

# Annie was an obvious attempt at creating a replica of Ellie (it is mentioned that Annie was born during the events of the Seven Underground Kings), and… well most of the fans of the books hate her for being a bland copy. She even has her own dog, the grandson of Totoshka, named Arto.

# The trouble Carfax the giant eagle was fleeing from where actually two more giant eagles: you see, the tribe of the giant eagle is limited to a hundred individuals, no more no less. As a result, to have a baby you need to put yourself in a waiting list that has been respected for centuries. And Carfax, the former leader of the tribe, tried to put himself first in the waiting list by modifying it… as a result the entire tribe rebelled against him and chased him away.

# Urfin seems to always have trouble with his armies. His previous army, the Deadwood Oaks, were utterly stupid and thus very hard to control. For the Marrans, it is because they have a hard time staying awake for too long and conquering countries leave them very tired. Urfin ends up using a special kind of nuts that cause insomnia to whoever eats them to keep his army awake… but unknown to him the nuts are a powerful drug, and soon the Marrans become junkies. Ultimately, the heroes cure the Leapers of their addiction by using the Sleeping Water (remember, from the previous book) which can erase all addictions.

# You might be wondering about the mule. Yes. Remember Fred Cunning, the clever young man who would grow up to become an engineer? Well, the mules (in plural, there are two) are actually his invention: he built two mechanical mules named Caesar and Hannibal, that work with solar power (remember, it’s in the 60s). The thing is that, when they arrive in Magic Land, the two mechanical mules become alive, sentient and start speaking. Later, when Annie returns home with the mules, they turn out to be extremely hard workers, so much that the father of Annie and Ellie ends up with a lot of free time since the mules do most of the field work for him, and he ends up selling their services to several neighbors, resulting in the family becoming a bit richer.

In 1970 was released what seemed to be the grand finale of the Magic Land tales. “The Yellow Fog”.

Five thousand years ago, when Hurricap (remember, the giant wizard who created Magic Land) was still living, a dreadful creature came to Magic Land. Name Arachna, she was a wicked witch, as well as a giant like Hurricap. She started attacking the land with all sorts of natural disasters, causing storms, floods and earthquakes. Hurricap decided he would save the land from her misdeeds (and he also just wanted to live peacefully on his own, and Arachna was the equivalent of the loud neighbor who keeps partying to five in the morning). However Hurricap, being a good wizard, refused to kill anything or anyone. So he decided to simply put a sleeping spell on Arachna, hoping that upon waking up she would be wiser and kinder.

Now, five millennia passed by, and Arachna just woke up – just as evil and wicked as before. She immediately asks the people of Magic Land to start worshipping her as their supreme leader, but they refuse to bow down to the giant witch. They already fought several times for their freedom and aren’t ready to give up. As a result, Arachna tries to think of a disaster to inflict upon the land, to force its inhabitants to bow down to her. First she wants to invoke locusts to destroy the crops, but she abandons this idea, realizing that she can’t put heavy taxes on people whose cattle starved to death. She considers using a flooding rain (after all it worked in the Bible – my private joke), but she also abandons the project because it looks too much like a natural disaster and she couldn’t prove that it was her actions. And then, she finds the perfect curse. The Yellow Fog. The Yellow Fog is an irritating, toxic yellow fog, that she puts over the land, to block the sun and the sky, turning the eternal summer of Magic Land into an eternal winter (and also basically making weak and sick anyone who goes too much near it or breathes it too much – yes the parallels with the chemical warfare were conscious). This is Arachna’s ultimatum: either let her rule and she will dispel the fog, either refuse to have her as queen and let your land die.

Interestingly, Arachna has an entire army of Gnomes serving her, the only people she was kind to during her first attempt at invading Magic Land, and who swore a vow of loyalty to her. They made a promise to serve her forever… however they never made a vow to fight her enemies or her battles, and so they flat out refuse to invade Magic Land for her (hence why she needs the Magic Landers to surrender on their own). And when Arachna is defeated (cause of course she will be) they will greatly rejoice, because after all she was still a wicked witch.

Annie and Tim return to Magic Land to help their friends, alongside the dog Artoshka and their uncle Charlie Black. They are joined by Carfax the giant-eagle (who was always a noble creature and realized in the last book he was manipulated by a wicked man), a giant made of iron that the group of heroes created (named Tilly-Willy), and… Urfin Jus.

Indeed, earlier, Arachna visited Urfin Jus. She had heard he conquered the country twice and wanted to enlist his help into conquering Magic Land a third time. However Urfin Jus refused: he recognized that conquering it was an exhausting and impossible task, that only brought misfortune and defeat to those that attempted it, and he even warned Arachna of not making such a foolish mistake. After this visit, Urfin ended up thinking about precisely how being wicked never brought him anything, and resolves to abandon his wickedness and rather become good in order to be more happy and not have as many worries – he joins the heroes as an ally and becomes one of the heroes of Magic Land.

Now I don’t know exactly how the book ends, but what I know is that the people and armies of the Magic Land end up marching against Arachna, and that the giant witch, corned by all these powerful enemies, jumps off the Cliff of Doom, killing herself. Oh yes, and somehow the giant Tilly-Willy, rendered sentient by the land’s magic, creatures a perpetual motion machine. But I lack information on the exact context.

It seemed like a good ending, right?

But no! One more book was left! “The Mystery of the Deserted Castle”. It was written in 1975, but was only published in 1982. Rumors said that some parts of the book were ghost-written since Volkov’s health was failing him at the time, and we would willingly believe it: this book introduces science-fiction to magic land!

A spaceship leaves the distant planet Rameria and approaches Earth, with the intent to conquer and enslave the Earthlings. The group is made of two different species, the Arzaks, a slave-race, and the Menvits, their masters, who have an hypnotic gaze that can turn any living being into slaves. Searching the planet for a safe spot to land on, they decide to land in Magic Land (though they ignore it has any magic). But, as usual, things don’t go as planned: people from the Outer World (the usual group) go to Magic Land and help the locals get rid of the Menvits. The aliens made their headquarters in the ruins of Hurricap’s castle: the heroes build a pipeline linking the Soporific Waters to the old castle, and end up erasing the mind of the Menvits. As for the Arzak, they are actually free from the hypnosis of the Menvits thanks to emeralds, who can disrupt the charm. They return on their home planet with their spaceship filled with emeralds, in the hope of freeing their enslaved race.

(Interestingly, it had been noted that another type of gem, the diamonds, were magic-repelling, more precisely diamonds can protect one against the effects of the Soporific Waters)

Since the sixth book is so different from the previous five, and is strongly implied to have been changed by another author, many of the fans refuse to read it or refuse to acknowledge it as part of the series.

[ndemon93]

An old picture

[buttercup-barf]

Born on the same soil, broken by the same witch, seeking the same thing.

[salamifuposey]

probably took "gonna hit the hay" a bit too literally 💖

actually, this was just meant as a cute little art thought for a fren (neutral-demon)~ with Scarecrow being just jolly serving as a big cushy pillow <3 some times it's nice to take a nice nap to rest a wee bit

[scare-ard--sleigh]

going over my italian tonight. For Them (my fictional implied italian boyfs)