Tin Tin: Tin Tin in the Land of the Soviets

FRENCH TITLE

Tintin au pays des Soviets

SERIALISATION

Tintin au Pays des Soviets (Tintin the Land of the Soviets) was Tin Tin's inaugural adventure. It was serialised in Le Petit Vigntieme from January 10, 1929 to May 8, 1930.

Tintin au Pays des Soviets
Le Petit Vigntieme

The publication of the first ever Tin Tin album was announced Le Petit Vigntieme 18th June 1930.

Tintin au Pays des Soviets

CONTEXT

In 1917 the Russian Revolution saw the toppling of Tsar Nicholas II and the establishment of a socialist government under the control of the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks formed it's self into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After a civil where the monarchist White Russians were defeated by the Communist Red Russians. Stalin assumed power of the Soviet Union in April 1922. The country became a dictatorship and not a workers utopia as was portrayed to the outside world.

Soviet Red Paradise

The reality was Russia was in famine. Collective farms had failed and any grain produced was being exported to give an illusion of sucess. The five year plan for industry created inefficiencies and failures. To portray the success of the Soviet Union, Stalin invited left wing intellectuals and reporters from the West to visit show factories and farms to showcase the achievements of the socialist soviet system. Russia's booming economy was an illusion of Soviet propaganda promulgated to the west.

Stalin's OGPU (the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union) enforced communist doctrine and ensured there were no dissenters to the regime. They also controlled the press and what was to be reported in west. They did not want the western press reporting the true conditions "in the land of the Soviets"

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets sees Tin Tin, a reporter with the Le Petit Vigntieme, together with his canine faithful companion Milou, is sent to the Land of the Soviets to report on the policies of Joseph Stalin's Communist government.

Tin Tin and Milou departing for the Soviet Union

SYNOPSIS

Tin Tin the bourgeois reporter is targeted by the OGPU throughout the adventure. They firstly implicate him in an explosion on a train for which he is arrested in Berlin. Escaping, he reaches the Soviet Union by by motor bike, car and stowing away on a train overcoming various mishaps on the way.

On reaching the Soviet Union he witnesses the sham presentation of the efficient Soviet industry "how the Soviets fool the poor idiots who still believe in a "Red Paradise".

Soviet portrayal of the the factories to western visitors

Soviet factories reality

He witnesses the co-coercion that keeps the communist party in power as the the elected representatives of the people.

Soviet Coercive elections

He eventually arrives in Moscow.

There he sees abandoned children queuing for bread ("another of the evils of Russia today") and discovers that the little wheat that is available is being exported for foreign propaganda purposes

Moscow children queuing for bread

Soviet seizure of wheat for foreign propaganda purposes

"Comrades.... we are short of wheat ! The little we have is needed for our foreign propaganda ! We simply must find some otherwise we face famine ! The only solution is to organise an expedition against the kulaks, the rich peasants, and force them at gun point to gives us thier corn. I have spoken !

Through many attempts to stop him, with imminent danger of arrest and torture, or death, Tin Tin and Snowy prevail through many improbable escapes from the OGPU.

Soviet OGPU attempt to arrest Tin Tin

Tin Tin's escapes

Tin Tin's escapes - German Police

Tin Tin's escapes - Bolsheviks

About to be attacked by a Polar Bear, the bear finds Tin Tin's vodka, and becomes inebriated, once again Tin Tin escapes.

Tin Tin's escapes - Polar Bear

Tin Tin joins the Red Army to prevent the seizure of grain from the peasants.

The Soviet propaganda, the activities of the OGPU, suppression of democracy and the exporting of grain to give an illusion of the sucess of communism whilst people starved are historically accurate.

Escaping to Berlin through more improbable escapes, he uncovers a Bolshevik plot blow up the capital cities of Europe with dynamite, thus avoiding that catastrophe.

He eventually returns to Brussels to a hero's welcome.