Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip
Shortlisted for the 2007 Rossica Translation Prize
In 1935, well into the era of Soviet Communism, Russian satirical writers Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov came to the US as special correspondents for Pravda. Over the course of two months, they drove cross-country and back recording their impressions of American life in text and photographs. This is the first English translation of their extraordinary travelogue.
Ilf and Petrov stated their intention for the trip with forthright humor:
"The word 'America' has well-developed grandiose associations for a Soviet person, for whom it refers to a country of skyscrapers, where day and night one hears the unceasing thunder of surface and underground trains, the hellish roar of automobile horns, and the continuous despairing screams of stockbrokers rushing through the skyscrapers waving their ever-falling shares. We want to change that image.”
Read an excerpt from the book (and see some of Ilf’s pictures) on co-publisher Cabinet Magazine’s book page.
In 2005, as graduate students, Vadim Besprozvany and I organized an exhibit at the University of Michigan devoted to Ilf and Petrov’s road trip and Ilf’s pictures. We called it "Soviet Writers, American Images: Il’f and Petrov Tour the United States, 1935-1936." Our exceptional graphic designer Elena Godina gave the show an urbane yet bold look, and we had a symposium with lectures from Erika Wolf and Alexandra Ilf. The exhibit also traveled to Colgate and Cornell.
"For me, it's simply remarkable that in 1936-37, which is when a lot of the Stalinist show trials are winding up and the terror is really about to kick into gear, that these Soviet writers are writing what largely is a sort of candid response to American culture that includes a lot of admiration of it... [the book] also captures, I think quite honestly some of the negative sides of the United States -- racism, poverty, disparity between city and countryside."
“In 1935, two Soviet writers embarked on a Borat-like tour of the U.S. Relive their strange journey in this delightful book.”
“Sorry, Borat, but two sassy Soviet Russians beat you to it. Just published for the first time ever in English, Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip is a lost treasure... It’s a cool, strange artifact, but it’s also simply a hoot; Ilf and Petrov are dry and pithy... Unlike Borat, they’re not boors... These guys are wise wiseacres.”
“[On their trip, Ilf and Petrov] gawked and got bored, picked up hitchhikers, palavered when they could (they were stunned by Americans’ incuriosity about them), swallowed a couple of stretchers, and reported everything in 11 loosely thematic pieces whose prose is clean as a whistle and much more ingenuous... Impeccably translated, edited, and introduced... this is riveting, fresh-eyed Americana and—how d’you say?—Sovietiana?”
“... a jovial and surprisingly affectionate account... a fascinating snapshot of a nation's history... before the Cold War took firm hold.”
— CNN Traveler
“When I saw the first installment of Knausgaard’s travelogue for the New York Times Magazine, I thought of Ilf and Petrov’s American Roadtrip, their account of driving around the U.S. for ten weeks in 1935. But in truth, the two chronicles have little in common. Where Knausgaard is expansive and self-seeking, Ilf and Petrov are witty and concisely observant.”
I am ever grateful to Alexandra “Sasha” Ilf (1935-2013) for her generosity and friendship. She enriched my scholarship, my translations, and my life. I last saw her in 2012, when (as always) I brought her the best coffee beans I could find, and she sat my husband Derek and I in her tiny kitchen to (as always) eat cutlets and drink wine and G&Ts. Derek finally got our exhausted toddler to fall asleep in the other room as Sasha and I talked and laughed. Светлой памяти...
Ilya Ilf
Alexandra Ilf
Big Ilf and Little Ilf in 1937
Derek soothed the savage beast while Sasha and I talked. 2012