The author himself called this book of stories “a short history of human relations.” That's all. Well, yes, heroes do not always find themselves in their own time; they sometimes act in the past - distant and not so distant. But these are special Zoshchenko heroes, not burdened with excessive cultural baggage and political self-awareness - they are comfortable at any time. And the writer became uncomfortable. After the Blue Book, they actually stopped publishing him: they say, he goes beyond the scope of “positive satire on individual shortcomings.” . But in world culture Mikhail Zoshchenko was recognized as a unique phenomenon. Unlucky Western critics saw surreal fantasy in his prose. But you and I know: he described only what he saw around...