Mikhail Zoshchenko, 1895-1958, was a great Soviet humorist. His works give a unique picture of Russian life in the Soviet period - a picture which, though satirically distorted and camouflaged by deliberate ambiguities, presents a shrewd commentary on the times. Lyudi first appeared in 1924. It is a long short story about the loss of gross illusions, about despair and decay, the struggle for existence, the animal in man. The hero is an ?migr? of the...