Our Notes & References

The Russian craze for American and British detectives: an excellent example of a pulp detective booklet from Imperial Russia.

The “King of detectives” Nat Pinkerton was modelled after the American detective, spy and abolitionist Allan Pinkerton (1819-84) by an anonymous German author in the early 20th century. Following the international success of Sherlock Holmes, the series of Pinkerton’s adventures gained great popularity in continental Europe. Printed in small booklets under the same-style motley wrappers worldwide, such series spread out as successfully as the English Newgate novels and the American dime novels.

Nat Pinkerton became extraordinarily popular in Imperial Russia and was particularly favoured among teenagers all over the Empire. The series inspired other similar works about Anglo-American detectives, such as Nick Carter, Lord Lister, Buffalo Bill and Sherlock Holmes (that had nothing in common with Arthur Conan Doyle’s work). It is interesting to note that, in parallel, Anglo-Russian relations were developing positively, resulting in the Entente alliance in 1907; and that there was a general expansion of the economic and cultural influence of the New World.

Contemporary Russian critics regarded such detective series very negatively, naming them all “Pinkertonovshchina”. In 1908, the famous Russian-Soviet poet and literary critic Kornei Chukovskii even wrote a denouncing article, complaining about the contemporary readership’s tastes: “In St. Petersburg alone, according to official figures, 622,300 copies of detective literature were sold in May of this year […] During Dostoevsky’s lifetime Crime and Punishment came out in 2000 copies and that these measly two thousands were not even sold in full from 1876 to 1880″ (our translation).

In this issue, Pinkerton’s adventures take place in New York. The detective investigates the mysterious murder of an old and greedy money lender Sarah Solomon, whose son David, another money lender, is already wrongly convicted and executed on the electric chair. Although the outcome of this story is not devoid of socialist sentiments, the October Revolution put an end to the “overly bourgeois” activities of Pinkerton (Kaletskii).

Such thin, fragile pamphlets were read and disposed of; as a result it is now very rare to find them on the market, especially in such, rather fresh condition.

Bibliography

Kornei Chukovskii, “Nat Pinkerton i sovremennaia literatura”, Sobranie sochinenii v 6 tomakh, T. 6, Statii 1906-1908 gg., Moskva, pp. 117-149; P. Kaletskii, “Pinkertonovshchina” // Russkaia elektronnaia biblioteka.