The prose of Vyacheslav Pietsukh is “literary substance” of the highest quality; capacious and precise (every phrase is an aphorism!), it has long been disassembled into quotes. The main character Pietsukha is a Russian man, a Rusak, as the writer likes to call him, with all his advantages and disadvantages, features and oddities (the latter is reflected to a certain extent in the very title of the book). The collection includes stories specifically about the Russians: what they were like yesterday, what they are today, what would happen to them if... And, of course, about what is always in their souls. They are us .“Left side” is about you and me, dear reader...