Magic Land

Ellie with Totoshka, Strasheela, Cowardly Lion, and Iron Woodsman

Magic Land or Goodwinia, is the alternative version of the Land of Oz created by Russian author Alexander Volkov in his six books, and developed further by Volkov's followers along with imitators. It shows a broad range of similarities plus divergences from L. Frank Baum's original vision of Oz.

Oddly enough, it wasn’t unintended for the first book from 1939 to coincide with release of the MGM movie. As an American movie, it wasn't released in the Soviet Union until decades later as Volkov had to seek approval a couple years prior for its publication. He then waited about was 24 years before releasing its sequel Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers in 1963.

The decision for Volkov to write more books might have been spurred by the 1961 release of a Soviet Union published abridged edition of The Magic of Oz which included The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that was used in schools to teach Russian kids English.

In both of the series, there can be found an Emerald City, a Powder of Life, and a little girl heroine from Kansas plus the same core grouping of characters and elements exists in both, usually under different names.

Books

After Volkov, many different authors continued the series such as Yuri Kuznetzov and Sergei Sukhinov in Russian while Nikolai Bachnow wrote books in German.

It is unclear how these later books fit into a canon, but Kuznetzov's starts after the last book as Sukhinov based his two series only on the first book. Illustrator Leonid Vladimirsky wrote a crossover book called Buratino in the Emerald City, in that Buratino is the Russian version of Pinocchio.

Volkov

1. The Wizard of the Emerald City (1939)
2. Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers (1963)
3. The Seven Underground Kings (1964)
4. The Fiery God of the Marrans (1968)
5. The Yellow Fog (1970)
6. The Mystery of the Deserted Castle (1975; published posthumously in 1982)

Kuznetzov

1. The Emerald Rain (1992)
2. The Abalone Pearl (1992)
3. The Apparitions from Elming (1992)
4. Prisoners of the Coral Reef (1992)
5. The Witch Arachna (2003)

Vladimirsky

• Buratino in the Emerald City (1996)

Bachnow

1. In the Clutches of the Sea Monsters (1996)
2. The Serpent with the Amber Eyes (1997)
3. The Treasure of the Emerald Bees (1998)
4. The Curse of the Dragon King (1999)
5. The False Fairy (2000)
6. The Invisible Prince (2001)
7. The Curse of the Copper Forest (2002)
8. The Stolen Animal Kingdom (2003)

Sukhinov

• Prequel Goodwin the Great and Terrible (2001)

Wiki Note: The English versions are published with the "Tales" imprint. 

Emerald City Series

1. Gingema's Daughter (1997)
2. The Fairy of the Emerald City (1997)
3. The Sorceress Villina's Secret (1997)
4. The Sorcerer's Sword (1998)
5. The Eternally Youthful Stella (1998)
6. Parcelius the Alchemist (1999)
7. Battle in the Underground Land (2000)
8. King Midgety (2002)
9. The Sorcerer from Atlantis (2002)
10. The Knights of Light and Darkness (2004)

Fairy Tales of the Emerald City (all published in 2000)

1. Corina the Lazy Sorceress
2. Corina and the Ogre
3. The Sorceress Villina's Ward
4. The Little Dragon
5. The Crystal Island
6. Corina and the Magic Rhino
7. Three in the Enchanted Forest
8. The Black Fog
9. Master of the Winged Monkeys

Other: Bastinda and the Winged Lion (Oziana 2007)

Others

Sergei Zaitsev

1. The Iron Woodman and Ellie

Lazar Steinmetz

1. The Adventures of the Evil Magician Astozor and his Tailor Lowen Lowenbrull 
2. The Encyclopedia of Magic Land (2010)

Liza Adams

1. The Iron Woodman and Strasheela in the Snow City
2. The New Adventures of the Iron Woodman and Strasheela

Characters

A list based on presumed Oz counterparts:

• Dorothy Gale = Ellie Smith
• Toto = Totoshka
• Wizard of Oz = James Goodwin
• Scarecrow = Strasheela, or Strashila
• Tin Woodman = the Iron Woodman, Iron Woodcutter, or Iron Lumberjack
• Cowardly Lion = the Cowardly Lion, later the Courageous Lion
• Wicked Witch of the East = Gingema
• Wicked Witch of the West = Bastinda
• Glinda = Stella
• Good Witch of the North = Villina
• Omby Amby, the Soldier with the Green Whiskers = Din Gior
• Guardian of the Gates = Faramant the Guardian of the Gates
• Queen of the Field Mice = Ramina, Queen of the Field Mice
• Jellia Jamb = Fleeta
• Cap'n Bill = Charlie Black
• Zeb Hugson = Fred Canning
• Nomes = Ore-Diggers
• Quox = Oyho

Locations

• Nome Kingdom = Underground Land
• Munchkin Country = Blue Land
• Winkie Country = Violet Land
• Quadling Country = Rose Land
• Gillikin Country = Yellow Land

Items

• Forbidden Fountain = Sacred Spring
• Water of Oblivion = Soporific Water

Comparisons with Oz

The sheer randomness of a tornado sweeping into Kansas and landing Dorothy in Oz is now given a explanation although it is now a magical hurricane created by Gingema. In order to deflect its destructive power, the Good Witch Villina redirected it without knowing it would pick up a house. There are minor differences in the first book such as Gingema not wearing the silver shoes but they are instead left in her cave as Totoshka wanders in and grabs them with his mouth. Also Bastinda has Ellie trip over a wire instead of an iron while the Iron/Tin Man sees a mermaid as the Wizard’s disguise instead of a human lady,

The recurring villain Urfin Jus is very similar to the Nome King, Ugu the Shoemaker, and Jinjur. As Baum introduced subsidiary girl heroines such as Betsy Bobbin and Trot, Ellie has a younger sister named Annie plus a cousin named Fred. Some scenarios that occur in his books seem inspired by later Baum’s later books such as having Totoshka talk right away after arriving instead of not speaking until Tik-Tok of Oz which was added to the 1959 edition while he remained mute in the original. There is also a version of a talking bear rug brought to life by Urfin which comes from an antidotal story in The Road to Oz about a blue bear was owned by Dyna.

Curiously, Volkov located his Magic Land within the American continent, reachable overland from Kansas (an exotic location, perhaps, for his audience of Russian children) — it is reached twice by land, and once through an underground cave system, though it is isolated from the rest of the land by physical and magical barriers.

Erika Haber in particular has written scholarly articles and books about the series in comparing it to Baum’s work as she published Oz Behind the Iron Curtain: Aleksandr Volkov and his Magic Land Series in 2017. Previously in 2014, she wrote a 14 page article called “Is Magic Land Oz? AM Volkov and the Question of Originality” for the Russian-English journal Children’s Reading (Volume 6, #2).

English Translations

Due to a period of mixed copyright rules that were not defined until 1995, March Laumer and Chris Dulabone published two loose translations that incorporated elements from Baum's Oz. Being based on the 5th and 3rd book, they were titled Yellow Fog Over Oz in 1986 and The Seven Underground Kings of Oz in 1993.

Peter Blystone has been translating and self-publishing most of the books to English since 1991. The books he has made available are all of Volkov's in three volumes with two books each entitled Tales of the Magic Land 1, 2, and 3 along with the ten books of Sukhinov's Emerald City series as individual novels. All of these books can be found for sale on Lulu.com. (Volkov and Sukhinov).

Adaptations

Due to numerous comparisons to Baum's Oz, adaptations are branded with the "Wizard of Oz" title and tend to mix in the original elements. For example, Adventures in the Emerald City focuses solely on Baum's books with Magic Land Designs and features a character named "Dolly" who is a combination of Ellie and Dorothy. The English versions of the two latest CGI films use Oz terms and names for marketability.

Films

• The Wizard of the Emerald City (1973)
• The Wizard of the Emerald City (TV series)
• The Wizard of the Emerald City (1994 film)
• Adventures in the Emerald City (1999-2000), adaptations of Baum stories using the Magic Land versions of the characters.
• Fantastic Journey to Oz (2017), adapts the 2nd book
• Fantastic Return to Oz (2019), adapts the 3rd book

Video Games

Various computer games have been created based on the series with some being adaptations of the books or educational games using the characters. All of the games are made by the Russian company Akella and have not been released in the US.

• Urfin Jus and His Wooden Soldiers (video game) (2007)
• English with Ellie (2007)
• Geography with Ellie (2007)
• Fiery God Marranos (2008)
• Riddles with Goodwin (2008)
• The ABCs with Ellie (2008)
• Mathematics with Ellie (2008)
• The Letters and Numbers with Ellie (2009)