About the book: year / The book is based on a series of “detective” articles and notes about cult and undeservedly forgotten authors, heroes and texts of Russian literature from Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Osip Mandelstam, Daniil Kharms and Velimir Khlebnikov to the Estonian dreamer Ivan Narodny and the nameless creator of the tragic Ukrainian folk song; from the disappointed officer Pechorin, the nihilist Bazarov, the envious Kavalerov, the sad clerk Epikhodov and the unlucky goose thief Panikovsky to a happy kitten named Pushkin, the playful mare of Army Commander Budyonny and a collectivist hen; from "The Brothers Karamazov" to "Girl's Toys". Most of the “half-funny” and “half-sad” short stories included in the book are united by the author’s natural desire to dispel, at least in thoughts and imagination, the intense melancholy of our historical era.