Gilyarovsky is incredibly observant, and the types he describes are so accurate that you can study psychology, anatomy, and gastroenterology from them. Everyday life of Muscovites at the beginning of the century is described so vividly in such details that, at the dreamy exclamation of some simpleton that life for our ancestors was just an easy ride, and if he lived in the same time as Pushkin or Chekhov, he’d have written better and more stories and poems—well, now I know dozens of crushing counterarguments to such a thoughtless outburst: “Are you ready to run from the bathhouse to the privy across snow barefoot?” “Can you walk in boots with paper soles?” Or maybe you’re ready to go to jail for smoking on the street? That’s it!