Story 1 — I Grew Up Thinking Oz Was Russian

I first encountered the world of Oz while growing up in the Soviet Union. I was about seven years old, and a teacher read the story to our class a little at a time. We looked forward to those readings. At the time, I had no idea that the world we were discovering had begun in an American book.

The version I knew was connected to Alexander Volkov's The Wizard of the Emerald City, a Russian-language retelling inspired by L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. To a child listening in a Soviet classroom, it felt like a Russian story. I did not know Baum's name or the history of the original American book.

Two Paths into the Emerald City

Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published in the United States in 1900, with illustrations by W. W. Denslow. Volkov's The Wizard of the Emerald City first appeared in 1939 and introduced generations of Russian-speaking readers to a related—but not identical—world.

The characters, details, and later book traditions are not exactly the same. For many readers who grew up with Volkov, however, his Emerald City story was their first doorway into that imaginative world. It certainly was for me.

When I think about where the museum began, I don't begin with a building. I begin with a classroom.

Rediscovering Oz in America

Only later, after moving to the United States and rediscovering Oz through my own children, did I begin to understand the connection between the story from my childhood and Baum's books. Something that had always felt familiar suddenly had a much larger history.

I discovered that there wasn't just one Oz book. There were different editions, illustrations, and publishing histories to investigate. The more I learned, the more questions I had.

From Reader to Rare-Book Collector

That curiosity helped lead me toward collecting and studying early Oz books. I became interested not only in the stories but also in how books were printed, how editions differed, and what a collector should look for when examining an old copy.

Over time, the collection grew into something I wanted other people to experience. The Wizard of Oz Museum is one result of that long journey—from listening to a teacher read a story to sharing rare books, memorabilia, and Oz history with visitors.

It is a reminder that an interest can begin in the most ordinary place and lead somewhere you never expected.