Fur Hat (original 1989; edition 1988)

In Soviet Russia there may not be a car in every garage but there can be a hat for every head, as long as you fill out the request in triplicate and accept that each hat represents your status in society. Vladimir's satire of the absurdity of the Soviet system tells the story of Yefim Rakhlin, who has worked tirelessly for eight-teen years in the Writers Union, written 11 books about fearless honest people that make no problems for the literary censors. By soviet standards he is successful and is able to fill his house with luxuries from other soviet block country's. Never mind that his books are terrible and tedious. However one day he finds out that the union is giving out fur hats to the writers according to their rank, with the best getting rain deer, the next best getting marmot, the third best getting muskrat and so on. Hoping to get a hat worthy of an 18 year veteran with 11 books to his name Yefim is horrified to find out that his hat will be fluffy tomcat. Feeling that he has been wronged Yefim navigates the bureaucracy to try and get the hat he feels he deserves and ends up through a series of events becoming recognized as a dissident hero by the foreign press.

Although I'm sure I missed some of the humor that only someone who lived in Soviet Russia would understand this short story was still a laugh. At its heart you see that even though the Soviet system aspired to equality, through corruption, nepotism, and pandering it was no better than the old aristocracy with the people in power rewarding their friends and milking the system; while people who followed the rules like Yefim were overlooked. Even the idea that a reward would be doled out according to importance smacks of hypocrisy and reinforces the elitist mentality that the soviets where so abhorred by. At the same time the book also pokes fun at the intelligentsia who come off as foppish with a fetish for all things foreign, filling their state owned apartments with anything they can that is made outside of Russia.

Overall another quick fun read and makes a good introduction to Voinovich's style of satire ( )

"The Fur Hat" is a fine blend of Russian humour, exposé and tragedy. Written by a Russian, presumably for Russians, it gives an insight into the daily life of the individual with a non-perfect, from the establishment's point of view, background, living under the Soviet system. It also highlights the social inequalities present in Russia of the time, and how snobbery survived within the Soviet system, and how it used the language of the system to promote elitism and favouritism despite the inherent hatred of such practices in communist theory.

Not being a Russian I am sure I missed much of the humour and satire, but I understood enough of it to ensure I will continue reading the works of Vladimir Voinovich. ( )