Moscow, the early 1990s. In the dormitory of the Gorky Institute, the poetic hopes from the Soviet provinces are huddled together. The empire is crumbling, the mood is tense, and vodka is in short supply. Otto von F., a student from Western Ukraine, goes to the children's department store to buy gifts, but finds himself lost and falls into the hands of secret service agents who breed an army of rats in the catacombs beneath the Kremlin. Moscoviada, Yuri Andrukhovych's most successful novel, translated into many languages, remains strikingly relevant. The neo-authoritarian Russia, fervent nationalism, the glorification of the communist era, chauvinistic kitsch, and ideological pressure—all these specters are chased away in a carnival-like spectacle filled with panicked laughter.