Nikolai Agnivtsev’s *Small Screw* (1925) – The Public Domain Review

Nikolai Agnivtsev’s 1925 agitprop children’s book Vintik-Shpintik seems to be heeding Kormchii’s call. It opens in a factory full of anthropomorphic machines, happily whirring along in diligent harmony. The dialogue is echoed in repetition latch, whooshAnd clinking of lathes, gears and flywheels: “Вот-вот! Вот-вот! Вот!”, “Ух-ух! Ух-ух! Ух!”, “Эх-эх! Эх-эх! Эх!” Our main character is a “little screw” (vintik-shpintik: diminutives of the words for screw and spindle/rebate), who likes to participate in production and fulfills his “humble duty” (cкромный долг). One day, however, the machines are forced to choose a ‘delegate’ to represent them. And suddenly the socialist machines resort to a more primitive way of thinking: “Я-то! Я-то! Я-то!” (That’s me! Me! Me!). Only our little screw remains silent. He waits patiently for his turn. And when asked to take the floor to make a speech, the larger machines laugh him into silence. He doesn’t get angry, swear or shake his fist, we’re told, he just walks out – a one-screw blow. “He is no longer just the ‘little man’ tearfully celebrated in nineteenth-century liberal Russian literature. He is the former good-for-nothing who has now felt a calling to be everything,” writes Evgeny Steiner, referring to texts from the Russian “Internationale”. When the factory starts up again, something is wrong, and the machine bullies realize their mistake: “Well, you just can’t live without him!” (But, it’s not necessary!). Embarrassed and ashamed, they drive to his house and apologize. The book ends smugly, as the screw prepares to go back to work: “He said to them, half turned: Ha, there you go!” (Им сказал в пол-оборота: Hy, вот, то-то!)