The Empty Drum

Short story by Leo Tolstoy

"The Empty Drum: A Russian Folk Tale Retold by Leo Tolstoy"^[1] ("Работник Емельян и пустой барабан") is a short story by Leo Tolstoy published in 1891. According to Aylmer Maude, famous Tolstoy translator, it was originally written in 1887, and is based on a folk story that reflects the Russian peasant's deep hatred of military service.^[2] It is based specifically on a folktale from the Volga region.^[3]

Plot

According to an anniversary collection of Tolstoy's work published by Cambridge University Press, in this story, the hero, Emelyan (sometimes translated as "Yemilyan",^[4] "Emelyàn",^[5] or "Emelian"^[6]), rings the war drum, which is used to summon the soldiers of the tsar to the battlefield, and once the soldiers are assembled, he smashes the drum, releasing the power of the tsar over the people.^[7]

Publication

It was translated to English by Leo Wiener and published in 1904,^[8] republished in 1999 in "Tolstoy: Tales of Courage and Conflict",^[4] and again in 2009 in "Leo Tolstoy's 20 Greatest Short Stories".^[9]

Legacy

This work is cited as the inspiration for the 1928, Chinese literary anthology, named 空大鼓 ("Kong Dragu", or "Empty Drum").^[10]^[11]

References

^ Leo Tolstoy (1900). The First Step: An Essay on the Morals of Diet, to which are Added Two Stories. Translated by Aylmer Maude. Albert Broadbent. p. 63.
^ Aylmer Maude (1910). The Life of Tolstoy. Vol. 2. Dodd, Mead and Company. p. 337.
^ Leo Tolstoy (1930). The Works of Leo Tolstoy ...: The life of Tolstóy, later years. Translated by Louise Maude, Aylmer Maude. Oxford University Press. p. 238.
^ ^a ^b Leo Tolstoy (1999). Tolstoy: Tales of Courage and Conflict. Cooper Square Press. p. 531. ISBN 9781461741626.
^ Leo Tolstoy (1968). The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy: What shall we do then? On the Moscow census, collected articles. Translated by Leo Wiener. AMS Press.
^ Long Beach (Calif.). Board of Education (1929). Social Studies: Course of Study for Grades Four, Five and Six. Long Beach City Schools. p. 298.
^ Donna Tussing Orwin, ed. (2010). Anniversary Essays on Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press. p. 2.
^ The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy. Translated by Leo Wiener. Estes. 1904. p. 499.
^ Leo Tolstoy (2009). Andrew Barger (ed.). Leo Tolstoy's 20 Greatest Short Stories Annotated. Bottletree Books.
^ Mark Gamsa (2008). The Chinese Translation of Russian Literature: Three Studies. Brill. p. 242. ISBN 9789047443278.
^ Limin Chi (2018). Modern Selfhood in Translation: A Study of Progressive Translation Practices in China (1890s–1920s). Springer Singapore. p. 167. ISBN 9789811311567.