The Soldier and Death

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First Publication

Published by John G Wilson in July, 1920.

Availability

Out of print.

Background

Ransome had always intended to follow Old Peter’s Russian Tales with further collections of Russian folklore. In mid-1917, he secured agreement for a second volume with Macmillan, but progress on it was increasingly disrupted by his j0urnalistic duties, the growing crisis in Russia and Ransome’s poor health.

Ransome did complete The Soldier and Death as a kind of “tuning fork” for the rest of his second collection. Macmillan approved it, and subsequently published it as a single story in 1920. It has been republished since, both as a separate volume, and incorporated into The War of the Birds and the Beasts and Other Russian Tales.

Synopsis

The Soldier and Death is a single folktale.