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The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin

by Vladimir Voinovich · first published 1969

The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (Russian: Жизнь и необыча́йные приключе́ния солда́та Ива́на Чо́нкина, Zhizn i neobïchaynïe priklyucheniya soldata Ivana Chonkina) is a 1969–2007 novel by Soviet dissident writer Vladimir Voinovich. Voinovich wrote two sequels to the novel Pretender to the Throne: The Further Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (Russian: Претенде́нт на престо́л: Но́вые приключе́ния солда́та Ива́на Чо́нкина, Pretendent na prestol: Novye priklyucheniya soldata Ivana Chonkina), 1979, and A Displaced Person (Russian: Перемещённое лицо́, Peremyeshyonnoye litso), 2007; together, the trilogy constitutes Voinovich's magnum opus. The first book is set in the Red Army during World War II, satirically exposing the daily absurdities of the totalitarian Soviet regime. It was rejected by Novy Mir, circulated by samizdat, and first printed by an emigre magazine in West Germany, allegedly without author's consent, after which Voinovich was banned from publishing his books in the Soviet Union.

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