The name of Karel Polachek (1892–1944), a Czech writer who died in one of Hitler's concentration camps, is usually placed immediately after the names of Jaroslav Hasek and Karel Capek. In this triple constellation of Czech comic classics, Hasek was primarily a satirist, Capek a humorist, Polachek most often used irony as an artistic scalpel. The central theme of his work is an ironic depiction of the philistinism, in particular the Jewish one. Despite the fact that the action of the novel “House on the City Outskirts” (1928) takes place in the 20s of the last century, the Russian reader will encounter situations here that are familiar to him today . The two main characters of the novel - the policeman Factor, the owner of the house, and the official Syrov, the tenant, embody, on the one hand, an unbridled desire for enrichment and power, on the other - vital passivity and complete defenselessness before those in power. The novel "Mikhelup and the Motorcycle" (1935 ) was written at a time when the threat of fascist aggression was already hanging over Czechoslovakia. Accountant Michelup, having purchased a motorcycle at a profit, experiences a series of tragicomic adventures. Hearing Hitler's speech on the radio, Michelup declares: “Pan Hitler! Accountant Michelup is depriving you of your words!” - and turning the lever makes the Fuhrer fall silent. It seems to Michelup that nothing threatens his well-being. But it is clear to the reader that it was precisely this position of Michelup and others like him that made the peoples of Europe victims of Hitlerism.