Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
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Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter du Petit "Vingtième", au pays des Soviets) is one of a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé. The series features young reporter Tintin as its hero.
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the first in this series. It is a political satire, expressing Hergé's distrust of the Soviet Union and poking fun at the USSR's claim to have a thriving economy.
Storyline
Tintin and his dog Snowy are sent on a mission to Moscow by the newspaper he works for. The train is blown up by an agent of the Russian secret police, the OGPU, and Tintin is blamed for the "accident". He is put in jail, but wrings his way out by deceit and disguise. He then steals a car and goes through several adventures before arriving in Moscow. He finds that the Soviets are making people vote for them by pointing guns at them, and that apparently productive factories are just hollow shells intended to fool foreign visitors. He also finds out the Soviets only hand out bread to young people if they agree to call themselves communists. Tintin discovers that the Moscow region is facing famine through lack of wheat–the bulk of the crop being exported for propaganda purposes–so the communist leadership is planning to pillage nearby farms. He manages to warn several farmers of the approaching troops, but is again captured. Escaping across the snowy wastes, Tintin stumbles upon the secret cache of riches that Stalin, Lenin and Trotsky have stolen from the Russian people (including an ample supply of wheat). Armed with this knowledge, he turns towards home again, via Berlin and another encounter with Soviet agents. Returning to Brussels, he is greeted with great pomp by the rapturous public.
Characters who do not appear in other stories
- The OGPU (Called Checka in one scene)
- The Red army
- The peasants
- The man working for the newspaper company
- The man in the bus (first page)
Template:Tintin bookses:Tintín en el País de los Soviets fr:Tintin au pays des Soviets id:Tintin au pays des Soviets sv:Tintin i Sovjet