Sozvezdie Kozlotura - Iskander Fazil' Abdulovich

About the reasons that prompted Fazil Iskander (1929-2016) to write the story "The Constellation of Goat", he himself told in notes titled "On the technology of stupidity": "I tried my article to stop the corn campaign. The article, however, was not printed, but the writer must set himself insane tasks." They did not print an article, but "The New World" printed a novella (1966), which immediately made the young writer famous. The whole country laughed at the administrative foolishness, knowing full well that the writer's "mad" idea is much broader than "goat-turization" or "cornization" and that, as the author notes, "there are many other constellations in the sky". Half a century has passed, the brilliance of the wise and stinging Iskander ridicule has not faded. The story, which took place "on the scale of a small but likable autonomous republic," organically fit into the history of the great Russian satirical literature - it is important not the size of the territory, but the scale of talent.
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