White Bim Black Ear

It was published in 1971 and immediately gained wide, worldwide acclaim. It was translated into almost 25 languages. In 1975 the author received the State Prize of the USSR for it. The book is addressed, of course, primarily to young people, but undoubtedly also to adults. The story concerns the fate of a dog who, by the will of circumstances, was left without an owner and subjected to the harshest trials—trials that, in the end, lead to its death. And as the author observes Bim’s fate and suffering and narrates it, he also unfolds, against this backdrop, a picture of human relationships, where the age-old dialectic of good and evil, baseness, betrayal and nobility, indifference and compassion becomes visible. Before us passes a whole chain of characters who embody all these traits. They reveal these traits both in their attitude toward Bim and toward one another. The actions they—these people—carry out toward the unfortunate dog serve as a kind of litmus test, reflecting their true inner nature, their genuine attitude toward the world and toward living creatures within it.

The author proclaims and defends very simple, understandable, and important things: love, responsibility, compassion, and intolerance for baseness. It seems that all of this sounds very relevant even today, in our day, when—sadly enough—if you will, “the banalization of evil” is taking place: the entire system of values is being destroyed, and in the minds of young and still fragile souls, depravity, baseness, cynicism, and violence are being promoted. Therefore, G. N. Troepolsky’s call: to be accountable for those you have tamed, to value true Friendship, to love life, and to remember that all living things fear pain and death—sounds like a timely peal of alarm even now. Anyone capable of hurting and doing base things to an animal is certainly capable of doing the same to a person.

The small novella by G. N. Troepolsky is a hymn to Good, Love, Humanity, and Life. And it is a hymn performed with great talent by a real Artist, a great Writer. It seems that the secret of this—namely, that there are universal human and humanistic principles defended there—lies behind the book’s undiminishing popularity and worldwide success over these four decades. It is worth reading for every thinking person who wants to understand something important about the world and about themselves.