The History of One City. Tales. Over seventy illustrations

The famous satirical novel-chronicle «The History of One City» by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin is illustrated in this edition with portraits of the foolish city governors, created by Nikolai Remizov, Alexander Yunger, Alexey Radakov, and Alexander Yakovlev; these brilliant drawings were first published in a separate album in 1907. The edition also includes nineteen tales by Saltykov-Shchedrin, including well-known ones such as «The Wise Pessimist» and «The Idealist Carp». The illustrations for the tales are made by Evgeny Zhako and Boris Pokrovskiy.

The book «The History of One City» was first published in 1870. Saltykov-Shchedrin's contemporaries perceived this incredible work for its satirical power somewhat differently than readers do today, as it contained references not only to biblical plots or the period of court coups but also allusions to life in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, many details of which are now hidden in the mists of time. In Shchedrin's book, one could easily discern parodies of Speransky and Arakcheyev, hints at Catherine II's voyage to Tavrida, the Polish uprising, or the Slavophile poems that were being published in newspapers at that time.

However, even now, «The History of One City» remains a completely unique and modern work in its own way. The inventions of Shchedrin's unrestrained imagination can be compared to the paintings created by the great François Rabelais in his «Gargantua and Pantagruel». What is striking is Shchedrin's stylistic flexibility. Each character speaks in their own language, and the parodies of the style of church books or bureaucratic documents are magnificent. Shchedrin indeed thoroughly understood the rusty mechanics of the Russian bureaucratic machine. After studying at the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum at state expense, he was obliged to work in the government service for six years. During this time, Shchedrin managed to work in the Ministry of Defense's office and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was an advisor to the provincial government in Vyatka, a vice-governor in Ryazan, and then in Tver. Shchedrin honestly fought against the bureaucratic hydra, rooted out abuses, handled a mass of cases, and composed reports. However, after several years of this fruitless battle, he lost his strength. Shchedrin resigned and began to fight against the dark sides of the life surrounding him only on paper.

He was not the first to use the technique of fictional chronology for criticizing reality. It is enough to recall Pushkin's «The History of the Village of Goryukhino», however, Shchedrin's prose rises to Boschian phantasmagoria and is perceived not only as a caustic critique of tsarist Russia but also as a Rabelaisian satire on all subservient human herds that regularly allow themselves to be exterminated in world wars. It is no coincidence that the existence of the city of Glupov in Shchedrin's work is interrupted by something akin to a biblical apocalypse, as a result of which «history ceased its flow».

In this edition, «The History of One City» is illustrated with portraits of the foolish city governors, created by N. Remizov, A. Yunger, A. Radakov, and A. Yakovlev. These brilliant drawings were first published in 1907 in a separate album. The illustrations for the tales in the collection were made by E. Zhako and B. Pokrovskiy.