Russia, who's the last one here?

The fifth collection of stories by Eduard Kocherhin - the chief artist of the G. A. Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater - develops the main themes of his work, outlined in the first collection, "Angel's Doll." These are narratives about the... "unsung" and sometimes sidelined people who existed in the extraordinary conditions of Russian everyday life in the 1940s-1970s. In Kocherhin's colorful gallery of heroes are an eccentric party boss from the province, pearl gatherers in the Russian North, and exiled "parasites" in the depths of Vologda... The section "Children of Lieutenant Schmidt's Bridge" comprises stories about the daily lives of "seheshatiks" - students of the Secondary Art School in Leningrad. Almost unbelievable plots of the lives of St. Petersburg's marginalized and wonderful collisions related to the author's theatrical career make up the section "Under the Stage of Life." The final section "Keeper of Memory" includes stories about parents and ancestors, including the camp "existences" of the author's mother, as well as the history of the ancient Polish family Odintsov.