Scenes from the Bathhouse: And Other Stories of Communist Russia by Mikhail Zoshchenko
These uproariously funny stories of Russia's leading but outlawed humorist give a behind-the-scenes look at daily life in the Soviet Uniona country of housing shortages and consumers' goods shortages, of inefficiency and bad roads, of bureaucracy and red tape, whose heroes are often fools, knaves, charlatans, fakers, poseurs.