Tsar Fish

The main themes of Viktor Astafyev’s (1924–2001) work are the war and the village—two of the most important themes in Soviet literature of the 1960s and 1970s. The village theme is embodied most fully and vividly in the novella “Tsar-Fish,” the genre of which Astafyev defined as “a narrative told in stories.”

A documentary-biographical foundation is organically combined with lyrical and journalistic digressions from the steady unfolding of the plot. At the same time, Astafyev manages to create the impression of complete authenticity—even in those chapters of the novella where fiction is obvious. The prose writer writes with bitterness about the extermination of nature and names the main reason for this phenomenon: the spiritual impoverishment of the human being.

The publication of the chapters of “Tsar-Fish” in periodicals went with such losses to the text that, from disappointment, the author fell ill and, since then, never returned to the novella—did not restore it and did not make new revisions. Only many years later, having found in his archive yellowed pages of a censored chapter titled “Norilsk residents,” he published it in 1990 under the title “Heart Is Not Enough.” The full “Tsar-Fish” was published only in 1993.

In 1978, for the narrative in stories “Tsar-Fish,” Viktor Astafyev was awarded the State Prize of the USSR.