The concept of "Soviet detectives" is not entirely clear. On the one hand, this phrase is applicable to all detective stories written by Soviet authors in the period from the 20s to the 80s of the last century. On the other hand, this is the name of the old and beloved Soviet films about the valiant police. In this article we will talk about books.
Soviet detectives: features of the genre
About Soviet literature is written just offensively little. From various publications it seems that in a certain period of our country's life exclusively “correct” works were published, telling about the party, the fate of the simple working class, and revolution. In fact, Soviet authors wrote quite a lot in completely different genres, although in their books you can clearly see traces of the influence of the then existing system.
Soviet detectives were born around the 20s of the last century, and the impetus for their appearance was a sharp increase in crime during the NEP. It was during this period that books were written about Mishka Yaponchik, Vaska Whistle and Sonya the city-girl.
Why do we know so little about the detective works of the time? The thing is that in Soviet times, the detective was considered exclusively a foreign genre, moreover, corrupt and corrupting. Especially indignant about this was Maxim Gorky, who considered such works “a heap of horrors, dangers, murders, sexual perversions.” By the way, an almost similar description was given in TSB (second edition). That is why Soviet detectives for a long time hid under the guise of adventure literature. Not a single author wanted to admit that he actually wrote detective stories, since the genre itself was in disgrace.
The second stage in the development of the Soviet detective can be considered the decade before the Great Patriotic War and the time of military operations. During this period, various espionage stories, the struggle against the class enemy within the country, and, of course, all kinds of war crimes began to serve as the basis for it.
The third stage began in 1956. At this time, the classic Soviet detective stories finally appeared: with crimes, investigations, evidence and other attributes of the genre. Over the next few years, the genre clearly distinguished several areas in which the authors worked - a classic detective story, a police novel, a fantastic detective novel, a spy novel, a political action-packed novel, and military adventure pieces. The best Soviet detective stories were created by such masters as Arkady and Georgy Weiners, Andris Kolbergs, Danil Koretsky, Victor Pronin and many others.
However, despite the versatility, works in the genre were united by one common feature: a sparing attitude towards the reader. Although the books contained crimes, fights, and murders, there wasn’t that blatant frankness, like, for example, Dick Chase.
Soviet detectives: a list of the best books
Here are the best books (according to the author of the article) from the series "Soviet Detective."
1. "The era of mercy." Arkady and George Vayner.
2. "Mitigating circumstances." Danil Koretsky.
3. “Proceed to liquidation.” Eduard Khrutsky.
4. "Anonymous customer." Sergey Vysotsky.
5. "The Widow in January." Andris Kolbergs.