Vyacheslav Stavetsky is a prose writer, archaeologist, and mountaineer. Born in 1986 in Rostov-on-Don, he was a finalist for the “Debut” award (2015) and the V.P. Astafyev Prize (2018); he has published in the magazine “Znamya.” His novel “Life of A.G.” has been nominated for major literary prizes.
The Spanish general Augusto Avellaneda is the most unfortunate of dictators. His allies in World War II were extremely lucky: one shot himself in the head, and the other was hanged in Piazza Loreto. A tragic misfire delivers Avellaneda into the hands of the republican rebels, who pass him a monstrous sentence: they put the dictator in a cage and haul him across the country, presenting him to crowds of enraged slaves. Universal justice is triumphant—the blood of countless victims is paid for with the shame of the killer—but gradually the unprecedented anthropological experiment turns into a clash between the former leader and his people…