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One of the fondest memories that I have from my travels in Kerala, besides the endless hours of gazing into the sea and relishing the delicious Malabari Biryani is meeting people with names that I have only read in my political science textbook. From our boatman’s son who was proudly called Lenin to one of the waitresses whose glistening name tag read ‘Volga’ to the endless Stalins I met across the state, Kerala’s fascination with Russian names is perhaps an extension of their pro-left ideology. There has been a strong presence of communist ideas in Kerala and it is the first state in world where a Communist ministry came to power through election. But these ideals do not rest in the sphere of politics and the name game alone but also find themselves strongly rooted in Soviet literature that has long been translated, read and discussed widely by Keralites. However, once the publication and distribution of books ceased to exist after the fall of USSR, they were no longer available in the state. But bringing them back to life, digitally is one Facebook Group, Aa Pazhaya Russian Pusthakangal which literally translates to “Those Russian Books of Yester Era.”
Started in 2013 by Sajid Latheef , an Assistant English Professor and writer from Mallapuram Kerala, the group serves as a platform where people can share their nostalgic memories about these books. Through this page, the 36-year-old has also started the project of digitizing old Soviet Children’s books, the links to the PDFs of which he posts on the Facebook Page. These Soviet books were earlier translated directly from Russian and typesetted in Moscow and were then distributed in respective states by regional publishers such as Raduga/Progress/Mir Publishers with whom they had collaborations. In India they were available in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil etc.
“The books were beautifully designed, mostly in hardcover, with colourful illustrations, which attracted children to the stories they told. After the collapse of Soviet Union, the publications from Moscow were terminated. They were no longer available in Prabhat Book House today. They remain in the collections of the book lovers who collected it during that era. Even thirty years after the closing down of Raduga/Progress/Mir publishers, our publishers were not able to design books of such quality, in terms of the production value. We wanted to store those books for the posterity. We wanted to store those books for the ideas they spread, as fundamentalism is in the air in our country.” narrates Sajid.
During the early days of the group, Sajid uploaded the covers of the books he had with him and shared his memories. The lovers of those books joined the page. Later the idea of scanning and uploading cropped up. Several other people joined the venture. He soon brought a CanonScan Lide 110 scanner and started scanning the books. They were finally converted to PDF and uploaded to a Google Drive, and the download link was shared through the page, with an introduction. Later, a folder was created in the Google Drive named “Soviet Library” and the link was shared. There are about 40 books available in the digital database right now.
Keenly interested in Gothic and pulp fiction, Sajid familarized himself with Soviet literature during the many vacations he spent in his grandfather’s house. “My grandfather, PA Sayed Mohammed was an active member of Communist Party of India in Changanassery, Kottayam. He had a library and he used to bring these books home,” he says. His favourite Soviet book is Achante Balyam by Alexander Raskin in Malayalam. The book was also available in English as When Daddy was a Little Boy. Some other books that he is fond of are, Visiting Grandpa by Nikolai Nosov, A Boy by the Sea (Kadalorath oru Balan) by N. Dubov, Tales of Steppes and Moutains by Chingiz Aitmatov and Garnett Bracelet by Alexander Kuprin
Soviet Children’s books told the stories of living men, women and children, and portrayed the realities of life rather than creating worlds of fantasy. The authors were in love with nature of their native places, and described them in detail making the readers love them as well. However children’s minds are often vulnerable and impressionable. Does this project then aim to evoke certain political ideals among younger generations by recreating copies of Soviet literature? Sharing his own political thought, Sajid responds, “ I have agreements and disagreements with Communism. As it tries to identify the human being beyond the bars of race, religion, colour and gender, I believe that part is still and ever-relevant. Whichever is the ideology, resorting to violence and fundamentalism is not fair. These books of course try to instill the spirit of communism through the stories they tell. Most of the books were meant to usher the children to the world of co-operation, the value of dignity of labour, humanity, and above all, the concept of Communism and Soviet Union.”
Sajid earns absolutely no profits at all through his page Aa Pazhaya Russian Pusthakangal and his project, but is very passionate about preserving a form of literature that may not belong to this state but is extremely relevant to not just its socio-political scenario but also to the sentiment of childhood nostalgia of many. “The lovers of the books are very enthusiastic about them. They wanted to introduce these books to their children though tabs, e- book readers and mobiles. I believe publishers are noticing this enthusiasm of the readers. Recently, a publisher in Kerala, named Insight Publica published semi-facsimile editions of 10 Soviet Era Children’s books which was greeted with equal enthusiasm by the readers as they tried to re-create the design and illustrations of their Soviet counterparts,” he says excitedly. Sajid’s ultimate aim through the page is to digitize as many books as possible, so that the legacy of great literary tradition can be passed on to upcoming generations.
Check out Aa Pazhaya Russian Pusthakangal here.
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