“KRIBLE-KRABLE-BOOMS!”: FROM THE HISTORY OF SOVIET RADIO ANDERSENIANA OF THE 1950S

Abstract

This article examines a radio production of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales broadcast on All-Union Radio between 1955 and 1959. Fairy tales were created by screenwriter Sergei Bogomozov, composer Boris Tchaikovsky, and director Alexander Stoibow. The script for the radio play was based on both widely known fairy tales of the time (“The Swineherd,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Steadfast Tin Soldier,” “The Princess and the Pea”) and lesser-known ones (“The Galoshes of Happiness,” “The Snail and the Rosebush,” “The Darning Needle,” and “The Spruce”). The author notes that radio interpretations of Andersen’s works constitute are the least studied area of Russian Anderseniana today. The article focuses primarily on the techniques used to adapt book texts for radio and the extent to which sociocultural and political contexts shaped these adaptations. The interpretation of Andersen’s work proposed by the creators of the radio play is considered within the broader trends of popular culture during the Thaw (depoliticization, escapism, infantilism). Particular attention is paid to the figure of the Storyteller (portrayed by Nikolai Litvinov), noting that this image — which later became entrenched in Soviet and post-Soviet Anderseniana — is innovative in relation to earlier tradition, including the plays of Evgeny Schwartz.