Once Gogol came to Pushkin...: Anecdotes about Russian writers. Compiled by Kurganov E.Ya

The Russian literary joke is a huge cultural space from the XVIII to the XX century The parallel history of literature and the life of Russia. Special story is bright, bitter, cheerful, tragic. Writers and poets, to whom we are accustomed since school times, having appeared by heroes and authors of jokes, appear in a completely different light, forcing us to laugh at them, admire or sympathize with them. Here they are alive, with their weaknesses and eccentricities, pride and vanity. And with your troubles.
The world of a literary joke is a world of talented natures, acutely noticing the unusual features of their brothers on Peru and their own. When one day Pushkin was asked what he felt, meeting on the street of Emperor Nicholas I, he, proud and proud, honestly answered: "meanness in all the veins". The world of a literary joke is a ruthless world. The monarchist and the great skeptic Tyutchev left for descendants such a statement about his fatherland: "Russian history to Peter the Great is a solid memorial service, and after Peter the Great - one criminal case."
Assembly of these stories, funny cases, episodes, the sharp of the backstage of the Great Theater of our culture.
Compiled by E. Ya. Kurganov