Velitelem msta Bugulmy Haek Jaroslav (2012)

In 1921, several months before Jaroslav Haek begins writing The Good Soldier vejk, he describes his experiences of revolutionary Russia in the cycle The Commander of Bugulma. In much the same way that he mocked the pre-war Austro-Hungarian monarchy in his stories, the former Red commissar depicts the Bolshevik Revolution. The reader encounters an amusing story set in the forgotten Tatar town of Bugulma, featuring the Soviet commander of the Tver revolutionary regiment, the drunkard Jerochymov, and the town commander, Comrade Gaek. Through humour and exaggeration, Haek portrays both the fanaticism of the revolutionary era, when everything suddenly got out of joint in the unfortunate year 1918, and the stupidity or simple human uncertainty of its new rulers. The autobiographical cycle is supplemented by further Haek stories from the same period.