Original title Чук и Гек Originally published 1939 | Illustrator A Yermolayev Publication date 1939 Country Soviet Union | |
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Translator Leonard Stocklitsky (English) Children's literature The Wonderful Adventur, The Tinderbox, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Wild Swans, Mio - My Son | ||
Chuk and Gek (Russian: Чук и Гек) is a 1939 Russian short-story written by Soviet children's writer Arkady Gaidar. It was adapted as a film in 1953, directed by Ivan Lukinsky.
Contents
Publication history
Arkady Gaidar started working upon the story in December 1938. It was initially published under the title "Telegramma" (The Telegram) in the No. 2, 1939, issue of Krasnaya Nov magazine. Later that year it came out as a separate book (Detgiz Publishers, illustrations by A Yermolayev), with considerable changes made by the author and re-titled, as "Chuk I Gek". In 1940 the story featured in Gaidar's Detgiz compilation Rasskazy (Short Stories).
Summary
In Soviet Moscow, young Chuk and Gek Seriogin live with their mother while their father is away in Siberian taiga for geological research. As the New Year closes in, Mr. Seriogin, longing to see his wife and children, sends a telegram asking them to come over. After making a very long and eventful train journey and a two-day journey through taiga on a dog sled, they arrive to find that papa Seriogin and his team of geological researchers are not at the base.
The guard returns from hunting and announces that the geological research team is gone for a ten-day trip to Alkarash Gorge and he himself will be gone for two days. While the three can stay in the guard's hut, he has no keys to the main houses or the storage. Chuk, Gek and their mother must now survive the next ten days in this wilderness all by themselves, with only the meagre supply that they have brought with them.
Translations
The book Chuk and Gek was translated into many other languages like Hindi, Malaylam, Bengali and Marathi and was one of the favorite books of children in India.