The Red Commissar: Including Further Adventures Of The Good Soldier Svejk And Other Stories

by Jaroslav Hašek, Josef Lada (Illustrator)

Jaroslav Hasek is best known for his satirical masterpiece "The Good Soldier Svejk." That book has been described (by British writer George Monbiot) as 'Perhaps the funniest novel ever written.' Although his life was short and chaotic, Hasek did, however, write more, as this volume tellingly reveals. In his preface, Sir Cecil Parrott, translator and biographer of Hasek, crisply defines its purpose.. 'All the world has heard of Svejk, but few are familiar with the countless other characters Hasek created in his stories and sketches, which together with his feuilletons and articles are though to number some twelve hundred. The best of these deserve to be made available to the Western public and are included in this volume.' The range is wide. There is a selection from his Bugulma stories (Hasek as Bolshevik and Red Commissar), some early Svejk stories, reminiscences of Hasek's apprenticeship days in a pharmacy, and the hilariously funny speeches made by Hasek when promoting his short-lived political 'Party of Moderate Progress within the bounds of the Law'.

Genres: Fiction, Czech Literature, Russia, 20th Century, Comedy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Jaroslav Hašek was a Czech humorist, satirist, writer and anarchist best known for his novel The Good Soldier Švejk (Czech: Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války), an unfinished collection of farcical incidents about a soldier in World War I and a satire on the ineptitude of authority figures, which has been translated into sixty languages. He also wrote some 1,500 short stories. He was a journalist, bohemian, and practical joker.

Reviews

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Red Commissar" is a wonderful complement to Jaroslav Hašek's unfinished masterpiece "The Good Soldier Švejk". "The Red Commissar" is a selection from the roughly 1200 stories and sketches composed by Hašek before he began to write "Švejk". The stories chosen by translator Cecil Parrott provide an overview of the entire literary career of Hašek. Moreover, as a group they provide closure for the reader of "The Good Soldier Švejk" who when finished have s the feeling that he or she knows what the unwritten ending of "Švejk" was.
"The Red Commissar" begins with a group of stories that describes Hašek experiences during the Russian civil war as the Soviet commandant of Bulguma, a district in Tatarstan. Although the Red Commissar is named "Gashek", he is simply an avatar of Švejk with the same speech patterns and devious methods.
The second group of stories focus on the inability of the Austrian empire to solve the problems or crime or improve of society which attests to Hašek's belief that a radically new politically regime was require.
The third group of tales describes Hašek's teenage experiences as an apprentice pharmacist. Here Hašek describes people as being dishonest. To survive one must learn to de duplicitous and opportunist.
The fourth group recount the career of s grandfather who worked as warden protecting the Carp farms of southern Bohemia. In these tales he praises his grandfather for his loyalty, sense of duty and moral principles. This is the only point in his career where Hašek will praise these qualities.
The next piece is a short account written by Hašek's wife Jarmila Hašková describing the incident in 1910 when the Imperial police searched Hašek's because of his involvement in the anarchist movement.
This is followed by a set of stories about Švejk written before Hašek began the "Švejk" novel.
"The Red Commissar" concludes with a group of stories about Hašek's "Party of Moderate Progress within the Bounds of the Law" which was more of a Dadaist drinking club. This Dadaist leaning will also disappear. Hašek will include in this section a description of the party members or perhaps simply partiers by the famous Czech playwright František Langer.
Through his choices and translations for "The Red Commissar", Parrott reveals new aspects of Jaroslav Hašek's oeuvre and personality. It remains, however, as difficult as ever to fix a label to Hašek " During the 1970's, in North America referred he was described as a precursor of Joseph Heller's. Hašek also had Dadaist and absurdist tendencies. For all his modernity Hašek's great hero "Švejk" conforms to the norms of the 17th century Picaro. Parrott in "The Red Commissar" manages to show us the path that Hašek followed to the writing of his one masterpiece "The Good Soldier Švejk".

[Beer Bolwijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't you just love it when something you absolutely adored ends prematurely, leaving you somewhat unsatisfied, and later you find there's more yummy goodness to guzzle your reading eyes on? That's exactly this book for anyone who ever read Jaroslav Hasek's masterpiece "The Good Soldier Švejk".

This book will show you a little of what could have been if the circumstances were more accommodating to the author, a few great series of short stories that you can read as other chapters in Svejk's life, the prototype stories of Svejk and some more autobiographical elements that put the writing process of the masterpiece into perspective.

On its own, without the context "The Good Soldier Svejk", I would probably not give it 5 stars so that's why it gets 4.

[Arturo Real · Rating 5 out of 5]

M inicio con Hašek fueron sus "aventuras del buen soldado Svejk", hace ya años. Acceder a esta serie de relatos breves ha sido delicioso para reencontrar a un escritor acido, certero e irónico, del que he vuelto a disfrutar como la primera vez que leí las historias de aquel soldado que quería servir a Su Imperial y Real Majestad por su vida entera.

[Suraj]

this is even better than Good Soldier Svejk

[Budge Burgess · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Hašek's stories about his life and times. Hašek, a Czech, had joined the Revolution in Russia in 1918, serving as a Bolshevik Commissar, working in lands newly liberated from the 'whites'. The opening few chapters deal with this time. While he pinpoints the chaos and confusion which reigned, there are interesting contrasts with his 'Good Soldier Svejk' novel.
The Soviet Union which would emerge from the civil war after the Russian Revolution largely held together the lands which had been Tsarist Russia. Contrast this multi-cultural, multi-ethnic 'empire' with the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire of the 'Good Soldier' world. Hašek portrays this as a much more tolerant society than the collapsing, decaying world of the Habsburg Empire. His description of Svejk's world is caustic and bitter – a world of ineptitude, conflict and abuse posing as unified in duty to the emperor. His description of the emerging Soviet world doesn't fail to highlight the confusion and incompetence, but he's much more tolerant – and optimistic.
These were, perhaps, days of hope for Hašek. There were certainly many who felt the Revolution in Russia would be transformative – that it would lead to the collapse of the anciens regimes which dominated the continent, replacing the aristocracies and monarchies with the emergence of true workers' democracies, inspiring peoples of all races and nationalities. Hašek died in 1920, before that dream went sour, but his 'Bugulma Stories', found here, are entertaining … and much more tightly written than 'The Good Soldier'.
The first five Svejk stories are also to be found here – Hašek invents the incorrigible good soldier. He is, indeed, a soldier, called up to complete his peacetime national service … even though he spends most of his time avoiding soldierly activity.
This is a less garrulous Svejk than the one who'll appear in the 'Good Soldier'. There are no lengthy anecdotes about people he once knew. And, in this peacetime army, Hašek is not emphasising the imminent dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Svejk, here, is more a figure of fantasy than of satire. He does wander off … taking orders literally. He does provoke officers with his insolent honesty. But it's a world of silly escapades rather than a commentary on an unfolding calamity – Svejk, for instance, ends up flying a plane at one point.
Interesting for those looking to learn a bit more about Svejk, there are some entertaining stories, and it offers some useful commentary on Hašek's background and the development of his writing style, but I couldn't rate it more than 3/5.
Absolutely the best part of the book is František Langer's essay describing Hašek's parliamentary candidature. Hašek's political meetings must have been worth attending (they were held in a pub). Langer captures the humour and passion of a bunch of self-defined Anarchists playing fast and loose with the business of party politics. It's a piece of writing which will make you laugh out loud and wish you could have been present!

[Michael Smith]

While reading the section titled ‘An Electoral Speech’, I came across the intriguing phrase, ‘theoretical anarchist’. I immediately stopped my reading and pondered the meaning and implications of such a provocative description. Is such a concept possible? Is it of any use? These questions proved sufficient for me to begin my own short story to address these thoughts. I generally appreciate any book that can do this. A book to make one think.
Many of the absurdities of military life are exposed here (with humour and understatement), some of which can be transferred to civilian life also.
A few of the short stories felt incomplete, but maybe that is deliberate to allow the reader to add their own details.
Much literature these days is Anglo-American in outlook, hence the enjoyment to be had when going beyond these confines.

[Karen Gutierrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared with Svejk, it's not so good. But I liked it

[Deniz Colakoğlu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kızıl Konser ve Aslan Asker Şvayk haricindeki öyküler kötüydü. Can Yücel'in çevirisi olması kitaba renk katmış. Kesinlikle okuyun denilecek bir kitap değil. Boşta kalırsanız bir göz atarsınız😁

[Patrick O'Hannigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short story collection is dry, dark, and satirical, which is another way of saying that it's an acquired taste that I can appreciate without loving it. The squib from a review that dates back to when Sir Cecil Parrott's English translation of Jaroslav Hasek's Czech original was published in 1983 notes (correctly) that Hasek's Marxism "was that of Groucho rather than of Karl," but his sad-sack characters are fatalists, one and all. Josef Lada's heavy line drawings lend comic relief of their own to the collection, which was first published in 1923.

Had Hasek been a writer of sunnier disposition, his stories of the "Good Soldier" Svejk and other down-and-outers might challenge Giovanni Guareschi's Little World of Don Camillo for staying power, but Guareschi's Communists are more endearing than Hasek's. That said, The Red Commissar has more than a few smile-inducing passages built on the principle of ironic reversal. This paragraph from a story about an upholsterer-turned-revolutionary named Klimes is a good example of the author's technique: "I got to know him in Sofia, two years before our Party was founded. It would require a whole chapter, and a voluminous one at that, to describe all his glorious deeds, the most renowned of which was when we fought together in that memorable battle on Mount Garvan. It was there that we laid siege to Monastir and, finding ourselves encircled by nizam or Turkish regulars, fled from the battlefield as gloriously as anyone can."

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond dark and witty, reaching downright hilarity in the face of circumstances I would never myself wish to live through...apart from the warm cheer of friendly pubs, good food, and brilliant conversation. That was clear enough from the stories on The Party of Moderate Progress within the Bounds of Law. Frankly I was jealous, and would like to add some playwrights and ballet dancers to my circle of acquaintances. But the Bugulma stories of a bolshevik bureaucrat were incredible, and were it not that I prefer my reading to be of full works and not selections of things, I would have given this 5 stars...

[Guy Southwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories that largely cover, in fictionalised form, Hasek's time as a (somewhat unlikely) Bolshevik Commissar, an apprentice apothecary, political agitator and general troublemaker. The five stories which constitute Svejk's first appearance are here, too. I bought this book thirty years ago and I have re-read it repeatedly. It does not get stale, perhaps because there is something intimate and endearing about Hasek's writing (and of course Parrott's translation). It's like sitting in a bar listening to a friend spin tall tales and outrageous anecdotes: you may have heard them before but you don't care because it's the telling, not the tale, that matters.