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Hill Country Russian

James Nelson
Russian Specialist
   
Translator, Interpreter, Teacher

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James Nelson began studying Russian in 1960 as a military linguist and went on to become a Fulbright Scholar and earn a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures. He has about six years' residence in Russia and the Soviet Union in various capacities. He taught Russian for many years in both civilian and military programs; interpreted in seminars at the George C. Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany; and was personal interpreter to the commanding general of the US Army's 1st Armored Division and Multinational Division North during the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and stationed with the Russian Brigade. Since 2000, James Nelson has concentrated on translating works by contemporary Russian writers from Russian to English on subjects ranging from Genghis Khan to military science to the Russian mafia. Publications include the following:

*Stop Being Surprised, a collection of stories by well-known literary critic Benedikt Sarnov about Russian and Soviet life with particular attention to difficulties experienced by literary figures and Soviet Jews;

*Night Wolves, a thriller involving the Russian mafia by Friedrich Neznansky, master of Russian crime novels, whose books are sold at kiosks throughout Russia;

*The Afghans, a novella by Russian emigre writer Vladimir Rybakov, the story of a Soviet soldier in Afghanistan with haunting parallels to Vietnam;

*Creature, a French Russian thriller by Vladimir Rybakov; and

*Bosnia Journal, James Nelson's firsthand account of the Russian-American cooperative military effort in Bosnia in 1996.

*The Mystery of Genghis Khan, a historical novel by Wladimir Secinski.

Book One published in 2006, Book Two published in 2007; Books One and Two published in a single volume in 2009; Books Three and Four will be published in a single volume later in 2009.

*The Steel King by Yulia Latynina has been authorized and is ready for publication.

*Land of War, also by Yulia Latynina, has been translated and awaits final editing and a publisher.

 

Further details and purchasing information for all books:

 

TRANSLATIONS FROM RUSSIAN TO ENGLISH

 

Benedikt Sarnov

Stop Being Surprised: Vignettes of Soviet Literary and Other Life

 

This book was originally published in Moscow in 1998 (Russian title Perestan'te udivlyat'sya: Nepridumannye istorii). Sarnov is a Russian literary critic who is sufficiently well known to rate an entry in the Rossiiskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar' (The Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary) of 2000. Most of the vignettes are one, two, or three pages long; a few are longer. All are written in an easy conversational style. Most are wryly humorous, but some are tragic. Topics range from the absurdities of the Soviet economic system to the oddities and travails of cultural and scientific figures, from the difficulties of everyday life in Russia and the Soviet Union to the horrors visited upon innocent people. Sarnov is Jewish, and the frustrations familiar to Soviet Jews are a frequent subject.

 

Stop Being Surprised is available from Infinity Publishing; see Web page http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/description.asp?ISBN=0-7414-2208-5 or link from the Infinity Publishing Web site ( http:www.bbotw.com ) .

 

Friedrich Neznansky

Night Wolves

 

Friedrich Neznansky is perhaps Russia's preeminent writer of crime novels. He is a lawyer by education, practiced law in Moscow, and was an investigator at the Moscow Prosecutor General's office for fifteen years. That experience is reflected in Aleksandr Turetsky, flawed hero of a popular series of crime novels that includes this book. Several of the Turetsky books have been televised, and Turetsky is a folk hero of sorts in Russia. Originally published in Moscow as Nochnye volki, this work of light fiction is rich in the details and realities of contemporary Russian life. It also contains valuable insights into the Russian Mafia.

 

Night Wolves is available from Infinity Publishing; see Web page http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/description.asp?ISBN=0-7414-2212-3 or link from the Infinity Publishing Web site ( http:www.bbotw.com ) .

 

Vladimir Rybakov (penname of Wladimir Secinski)

The Afghans

 

It is late summer 1987. Rumor has it the Soviet army is about to leave Afghanistan. Senior Lieutenant Borisov doesn't believe the rumor and wangles an assignment to Afghanistan. Borisov believes in his country's mission in Afghanistan and wants a piece of the action. He believes in the essential nobility of his profession and in lots of other cliches, too. He expects enlisted men to obey their officers unquestioningly and for everyone to follow the regulations. It turns out nearly everything he expected and believed in was wrong. Even love.

The Afghans will be of interest to those interested in both Soviet and American involvement in Afghanistan and in the psychological aspects of military science.

 

The Afghans is now available from Infinity Publishing at

http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/description.asp?ISBN=0-7414-2296-4 or link from the Infinity Publishing Web site ( http:www.bbotw.com ) .

 

Creature. A French Russian thriller

 

It is the very beginning of the 21st century. Andre Comperen, 45, lives in Paris and runs a small import-export firm which he took over from his Russian-emigre father. Although he is perfectly happy with his mistresses, he is unaccountably and irresistibly drawn to

Vera Hoffman, a Russian Jew who has emigrated to Israel.

Andre has inherited another job from his father: He is a hit man for the KGB and goes on missions worldwide. The job continues

under the KGB's successor organization, the FSB. Rogue elements in the FSB seek to kill Andre and his father, who decides offense is the best defense.

But is Andre's father who he says he is? And did Andre's mother really commit suicide?

Russia's history and destiny, and those of France, Israel, and Poland, are recurrent topics in the novel. This is a story of deception, self-deception, confused personal and cultural identity, and sexual dysfunction and frustration.

 

Creature has been published by Infinity ( http:www.bbotw.com ) and is available at

http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/description.asp?ISBN=0-7414-2529-7 .

 

The Mystery of Genghis Khan

 

Genghis Khan and his successors created the largest empire in history. How they did it is something of a mystery, a mystery for which Wladimir Secinski offers plausible answers in his epic historical novel The Mystery of Genghis Khan. Secinski proposes that much of the secret of Genghis Khan's success lies with his Chinese advisor Yeh-liu Chu-tsai. The story follows the lives and events, real and fictional, of these two men. Parts of the story of Yeh-liu Chu-tsai are particularly poignant. The novel contains a vast amount of historical, ethnographical, and cultural information. There are also discussions on political and military science and logistics, the latter being of particular importance to Genghis Khan's success.

 

Book One of The Mystery of Genghis Khan has been published (2006) and is available at http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/description.asp?ISBN=0-7414-3424-5.

Book Two of The Mystery of Genghis Khan has been published (2007) and is available at http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/description.asp?ISBN=0-7414-4051-2.

Books One and Two of The Mystery of Genghis Khan have been published in a single volume (2009) which is available at http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/product.aspx?ISBN=0-7414-5438-6.

 

OTHER WORKS

 

James Nelson

Bosnia Journal: An American Civilian's Account of His Service with the 1st Armored Division and the Russian Brigade in Bosnia, December 1995-November 1996

 

Bosnia Journal is a diary of Jim Nelson's day-to-day observations as the English-Russian interpreter to Commanding General William L. Nash of the US Army 1st Armored Division and Multinational Division North in Bosnia from December 1995 through November 1996. Some of it is humorous; some of it is gritty. It is approximately 190 pages in length, and there are 159 entries in the index of names. Bosnia Journal should be of interest to Russians and Americans who served in Bosnia in 1996 and to those interested in Bosnia, in military science as applied to American military peacekeeping efforts, and in how American and Russian military people see each other and work together.

 

Bosnia Journal is now available from Infinity Publishing ( http:www.bbotw.com ) and can be seen at www.buybooksontheweb.com/description.asp?ISBN=0-7414-2321-9 .

 

 

LINKS

 

Benedikt Sarnov:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/public-affairs/press-releases/index.phtml?menu=pressreleasesarchive&code=MAJO-40/00&create_date=20-jan-2004

http://www.panrus.com/books/8257.htm

 

Vladimir Voinovich:

http://www.voinovich.ru/ (in Russian)

http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/8345-19.cfm

 

Friedrich Neznansky:

http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/archives/200209/0352.html

http://www.peoples.ru/art/literature/prose/detectiv/neznansky/ (in Russian)

http://www.rus-olimp.ru/author_neznansky.htm (in Russian)

http://www.bookler.ru/bookauthor/h8bh3hlecd/1.shtml (in Russian)

 

Vladimir Rybakov:

http://belousenkolib.narod.ru/Russian/rybakov_v.html (in Russian)

http://slovari.net/show.php?sl=bs&art=54587 (in Russian)

 

Major General (Retired) William L. Nash:

http://www.cfr.org/bio.php?id=8416

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=William_L._Nash

http://www.defenselink.mil/photos/Dec1995/951219-O-9085M-03.html

 

Aleksandr Ivanovich Lentsov:

http://ivadm.ivanovo.ru/digest/whoiswho/lentsov.htm (in Russian)

http://www.ilim.ru/~taf/public/chechnja6.html (in Russian)

http://www.panorama.ru/info/demo/TEXTS/51188.html (in Russian)

 

Bosnia peacekeeping:

http://www.fsu.edu/~trauma/Peacekeeping_entry.html

http://www.friendsofbosnia.org/_news/fobBriefs_10/Reflections.html

http://www.dtic.mil/bosnia/

 

 

 

Contact James Nelson hillcountryrussian@yahoo.com