The Treasure of the Rebellion

Rusija

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Alexey Ivanov

The tops of the pine-trees on Four Brothers’ Ridge were puncturing the bottom of the sun: it was turning red as if in pain. Chetyroshny Stream, bursting with its spring waters, was pushing its way through the twilight shadows of the narrow valley. It was dragging along twigs and branches, bark and pieces of uprooted turf, which it flung angrily into the Chusovaya river, as a cantankerous woman might hurl out the rubbish she’d swept up in her house straight at the feet of an unheeded visitor.

The Treasure of the Rebellion. 1778. The Land of Urals is smoking with their mining plants. They are smelting ironstone for the entire Empire. But how can one ship it to the capital? Because of the no-road conditions the horses and carts are out of the question. For the Ural plants there is only one road – the Chusovaya River; yet it is too shallow and narrow for loaded barges. To solve the problem, the plant owners devise a unique, unrivalled method. In spring, they open dams in a row to drain water stored in numerous factory ponds. The artificially arranged tsunami turns the Chusovaya into a mad, full-flowing torrent that carries away the heavy barges. While floating, they collide, wreck on rocks, and sink. The job of a pilot is profitable and respectable, but hard to get. A mighty semi pagan sect controls the whole of the float in the novel. The main character rebels against the power of the sect thus seeking his dream job.

Alexey Ivanov is the author of over twenty books printed overall more than a million copies. He explores a variety of literary genres. “Dorm on the Blood”, “Bluda and MUDO”, “The Geographer Drank His Globe Away” represent the modern urban prose. “The Treasure of the Rebellion” and “The Heart of Taiga” are modernist historical novels. “The Dog-Headed” and “Community” – intellectual thrillers. “The Mining Civilization”, “The Backbone of Russia”, “To See the Russian Rebellion” and “Eburg” are embellished non-fiction on the local history of Russia’s province.

Ivanov won the “Big Book”, “Yasnaya Polyana”, “Book of the Year” and other literary awards. The Russian Ministry of Education has entered Ivanov’s works on the modern literature syllabus for the tertiary level. His creative work has been analysed in over a hundred research articles and five Ph.D. theses. Rights for producing screen versions of Ivanov’s books have been acquired by leading Russian companies. Theatrical productions based on Ivanov’s works are running in Moscow, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Perm, and Yekaterinburg theatres.