1993 novel by Yurii Andrukhovych
The Moscoviad (
multicultural and disorganized city controlled by
KGB and having
imperial ambitions. The text is written in a rich and vivid language, exhibiting the elements of
magic realism and mentioning multiple historical and cultural figures. Although the original text's language is Ukrainian, it contains many sentences in
Russian and
German spelled in Ukrainian for a more pronounced comic effect.
Plot summary
Although the novel has one clearly defined plot of action, the narrative is sometimes interrupted by the hero's reminiscences as well as by his appeals to the fictitious Ukrainian king Olelko the Second. Other non-linear elements include alternative outcomes (endings) and multiple references to famous historical and cultural figures who do not appear directly in the novel.
A condensed plot of action follows.
The Ukrainian poet Otto von F. wakes up in his Moscow
Malagasy girl. Returning from the shower to his room, he discovers his three older friends (Yura Holitsyn, Arnold Horobets and Boris Roitman) who talk him into going to a disreputable bar with them. At the bar (bar-na-Fonvizina), the four friends consume a large quantity of low-quality beer. Otto pronounces a speech that calls for
Ukraine's separation from
Russia, to everyone's applause.
Soon Otto departs because he has an appointment with his colleague Kyryl at Kyryl's apartment. But before seeing Kyryl he has to buy presents for his friends' children at the big superstore "
's music behind.
He stops by at a cheap and dirty restaurant and narrowly escapes unhurt as it explodes. At "Dytiachyi Svit" he visits a
homosexual and nicknames "the baron". Soon afterwards he discovers that his wallet has disappeared from his backpack and realizes that only the baron could possibly steal it. The wallet contains some money, but, most importantly, a plane ticket to
Kyiv which was very hard to obtain. Otto pursues the baron who has just disappeared behind one of the doors that leads to the storage rooms of "Dytiachyi Svit". The wild chase through a maze of basement corridors ends in a brief encounter between the two. The baron is victorious as Otto groans on the floor with an injured leg. The triumphant baron, however, falls through an open sewer hatch by oversight, thus leaving Otto alone in the basement. Otto realizes that the store must be closed by now and all the doors leading to the top must be locked. After some attempts he stumbles across a door that opens but when he steps inside he finds himself inside a tunnel of the
Moscow subway.
He is soon arrested by armed
Lenin,
Dzerzhinsky etc. A terrible plot is brewing. A mysterious figure in a black pantyhose pulled over its head announces a plan to amass the power of the Empire at the expense of subjugating other countries (
Finland,
France,
Israel etc.) and turning its citizens into docile slaves. Otto faces a choice – either to sit back and let the plan go ahead, or to do something to defuse it. He borrows a gun from a KGB agent who is demoted as a consequence of Otto's escape, and shoots the Russian leaders, one by one. They tumble down as sacks stuffed with straw. Then Otto shoots himself.
But later he reappears alive and boards a train to Kyiv as Moscow is destroyed in a giant flood.
See also
References
