ABSTRACT
In the 1970s Aleksandr Zinov’ev wrote mainly long books: Ziiaiushchie vysoty (The yawning heights, 1976), V preddverii raia (The antichamber to paradise, 1979), and Zheltyi dom (The yellow house 1980). Zinov’ev’s preferred mode of writing is such that he has no difficulty in determining the length of any book that he sets out to write, or as he puts it, “make”. In Katastroika the figure of Gorbachev appears, acting in collusion with Zinov’ev’s personages who represent the Soviet “Party and Government”, namely Suslikov, Korytov, Krutov and others. Thus Katastroika provides the over-all context of the Soviet Union in general and Partgrad in particular during the period of perestroika, within which unprotected individuals at the bottom of the social scale such as Ivan Laptev, Gorev, “Slepoi”, “Romantik”, have to struggle for survival.
