The BolbasesIt was Bolbas who gave me the idea to go into politics.
He didn’t come out in the photo on my cell phone. His wife didn’t get into the picture at all. You can see his coat and his tall fur hat. Instead of a face, a pink blur. I deleted this photo on the day that I took it.
On the last visit from Uncle Kolya I had already made it into literature. I had received two prizes, and had three books published.
On one of the moments in the morning when he was still sober, and so especially gloomy, Uncle Kolya said to me, loudly leafing through “Novy Mir”, unable to find my story, which was hidden in the middle, and so getting even more angry:
“You write and write… Scribbling is fine. But you should help the people with a cause.”
“How?” I asked.
“How, Shmow,” he mocked me. “Did you
