Mess-Mend

Mess-Mend: Yankees in Petrograd (Russian: Месс-Менд, или Янки в Петрограде) is a Soviet adventure novel by Marietta Shaginyan with elements of fantasy and mystery. It was first serialized as a pseudotranslation under the pen name Jim Dollar in ten weekly installments published akin to dime novels by Gosizdat during March and April 1924, illustrated by Alexander Rodchenko.^[1][2] The novel is about the struggle of the international clandestine workers' organization Mess-Mend against the international capitalist conspiracy. Its dynamic, entertaining style made it very popular in the Soviet Union.

Mess-Mend had two sequels, also under the pen name Jim Dollar: Lori Len Metallist [Laurie Lane, Metalworker]. Moscow: Gosizdat, 1924; and Месс-Менд, или Международный вагон [Mess-Mend, or International Train Car], first serialized in the evening supplement to Red Newspaper [ru] in October-December 2025, later retitled as Doroga v Bagdad [The Road to Baghdad].

In 1926, on an occasion of the release of Miss Mend, a Soviet film loosely based on the novel, Shaginyan published a short brochure "How I wrote Mess-Mend".^[3]

In 1956 Shaginyan published a reworked version of the book described as "novel-fairytale" in Detgiz publishing house, which included "How I wrote Mess-Mend".

German translation: Mess Mend oder Die Yankees in Leningrad, 1987.

English translation by Samuel Cioran, Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1991.^[4]