The story of one city

The History of one City is one of the most famous works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826–1889) The picture of Russian life is presented here in the history of the fictional city of Glupov. Turning to science fiction and grotesque, Saltykov-Shchedrin created a whole gallery of the replacement of each other, the Stupovskiy mayor. For these funny, and sometimes terrible images, the rulers of the Russian state, its true history, are easily guessed. “His laughter of grief and harsh, his mockery often offends,” wrote about Saltykov-Shchedrin Turgenev. “This is a natural manifestation of his character, in which the inner kindness and sensitivity are hidden under external severity.” The first publication of the novel (1869–1870) caused a violent polemic in the press. Responding to the reproaches of critics, Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote: “Maybe I"m wrong, but in this case reality is a hundred times not right ...” In this edition “The History of one City” is published with illustrations by Mikhail Kupriyanov, Porfiry Krylov and Nikolai Sokolov - outstanding Russian artists who jointly worked under the creative pseudonym of Kukryniks. For the first time, their illustrations for the novel were published in 1939, later, in 1981, the artists processed this cycle, expanding it and making illustrations with colored