The Tale of Hodja Nasreddin: Disturber of the Peace

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Leonid Vasilyevich Solovyov was born in 1906 in the city of Tripoli, Lebanon, where his parents had been working for the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. In 1909, the family returned to Russia; in 1921, it moved to Kokand, Uzbekistan. Solovyov worked for several regional newspapers and, during his travels in Uzbekistan’s Fergana Province, studied regional folklore.

In 1930, Solovyov left for Moscow and enrolled in the literary and screenwriting program at the Institute of Cinematography, graduating in 1932. While living in Moscow, Solovyov wrote a number of novels, short stories, and screenplays. Disturber of the Peace – the first part of Solovyov’s best known work, The Tale of Hodja Nasreddin – was published in 1939. During the Second World War, Solovyov served as a war correspondent and produced several wartime stories and screenplays.

In 1946, Solovyov was accused of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism against the Soviet state. He was interred in several prison camps until 1954, when he was cleared of all charges and released. The second part of The Tale of Hodja Nasreddin, subtitled The Enchanted Prince, was written in the camps and completed around 1950.

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