"Saluki" by Polina Dashkova, summary

The collection "Saluki" was published in 2004. This book is a mosaic of autobiographical prose, detective stories, philosophical essays, and early poems. The author explores the fluid boundary between literary fiction and reality, showing how historical myths, personal memory, and human conscience shape each person’s choices.

Creative laboratory and the mysteries of history

In her story "Point of No Return," the writer reveals the inner workings of her work on a historical novel about the 1917 Revolution. Her vision calls for a long-lived protagonist, capable of surviving the terror and telling the truth without fear. Thus, the author imagines the 116-year-old Freemason Fyodor Fyodorovich Agapkin.

The character seems to come to life, materializing in the author’s office and engaging in caustic dialogue with her. Together, they analyze myths of the Soviet era: the origins of party money, the provocateur activities of Roman Malinovsky, and forgeries like the "letter from Colonel Eremin" about the young Stalin’s collaboration with the secret police.

Particular attention is paid to the events of August 30, 1918. Analyzing investigative materials and medical reports, the author demonstrates the absurdity of the official version of Fanny Kaplan’s assassination attempt on Lenin. Kaplan suffered from almost complete blindness and could not shoot accurately in the dark. Her hasty execution and the burning of her body in a barrel in the Kremlin are explained as an attempt to conceal the staged assassination and protect party functionary Viktor Garsky, Fanny’s former lover.

Overcoming Death and the Memory of the Heart

The story "Leshenka" is filled with poignant autobiography. It is a confession about the last four months of the life of the writer’s husband, director Alexei, who was dying of stage-four cancer.

The author describes in detail the agonizing battle with the disease, the indifference of some doctors, and the commercial greed of others. Despite the prognosis and the suffering from aggressive chemotherapy, the family surrounds the dying man with care until his last day, creating an atmosphere of warmth and comfort. In the heroine’s mystical vision, the cancerous tumor appears as a soulless parasite, born of emptiness and selfishness. The story’s ending affirms the immortality of the human spirit: true love binds people even after the destruction of mortal flesh.

Love at the crossroads of criminal wars

The story "Saluki" connects the destinies of two dissimilar people against the backdrop of the turbulent events of the late twentieth century. In 1978, eighteen-year-old cadet Kirill Petrov sees a girl named Vika in a snowy Moscow courtyard, walking with a rare oriental sighthound — a snow-white Saluki. The young man is timid and hesitates to approach her, but the image of the girl remains in his heart for twenty years.

Kirill experiences the harsh school of war: he takes part in the storming of Amin’s palace in Kabul in 1979, serves in Tajikistan and Chechnya, and retires from the special forces after the events of October 1993. Vika is the daughter of the crime boss Tsirkach. After the death of her brother and her father in the camp, she marries a new Far Eastern overseer nicknamed Mikho.

In 1998, a war with a Chechen group rages in Vladivostok. Mikho flies to Moscow to treat his eye problems. A middleman, Artur Shpon, receives a contract from the Caucasians to assassinate a supervisor. Shpon contacts Kirill, mistaking the former officer for a hired killer. Kirill carries out a covert operation and catches the middleman red-handed while handing over the advance payment.

Realizing she no longer loves her husband, Vika decides to leave Mikho. On New Year’s Eve, she goes out into the yard with a new Saluki puppy named Greta. There, Kirill meets her. After twenty years of separation, their childhood dream turns into a real reunion.

The dark side of the gambling business

The story "Probability Theory" is based on the criminal case against the organizers of fraudulent computer lotteries at Luzhniki Stadium. In the early 1990s, a trio of adventurers — prisoner Vadik, Afghan war veteran Valera, and failed actor Mikhlya — open a chain of kebab shops and glass pavilions with electronic "cockroach races."

The scam is designed to ensure that only bogus players win large prizes. The chain is generating incredible profits, and Vadik dreams of opening a luxury restaurant.

Natalya Sergeevna, a high school geography teacher from Kamchatka, falls victim to a scam. Having come to the capital to receive the "Teacher of the Year" award, she hopes to buy a wheelchair for her sick daughter, Katya, but the scammers’ greed and manipulation deprive her of all her savings.

That same day, the scam creators’ SUV hits Natalia in an alley at full speed and crashes into a pole. RUOP operatives, led by Colonel Popov, force the criminals’ lawyer to pay the woman the full amount of damages. The entire group is subsequently arrested under the new Criminal Code article on organizing a criminal community.

Stories, essays and portraits of the era

The collection includes short stories and essays that dissect the mores of post-Soviet society.

The essay "The ’Auntie’ Syndrome" analyzes a specific type of female bitterness and pettiness, regardless of age. The author urges us to maintain inner nobility, a lighthearted spirit, and the ability to rejoice in others’ happiness.

The story "Sign of Fate" tells the story of a humble supplier, Pyotr Ivanovich. A chance prediction by a gypsy woman comes true in a bizarre way: he becomes the face of the fraudulent financial pyramid scheme "AO IPCHI." Having achieved momentary fame and recognition on a talk show, he remains a poor man living on the outskirts of the city with his aging therapist wife.

The short story "Her Majesty the Traffic Jam" depicts a cross-section of capital life through a traffic jam. Within a single confined space, the rage of a rude driver in an expensive car, the drug-fueled delirium of teenagers, the death of a lonely old man from a heart attack, and the birth of a new person inside an ordinary car are intertwined.

The autobiographical essays "Something About the Past and the Future," "Girls’ Trousers," "How I Acted in Film," and "Ballet" capture Soviet life in the 1970s and 1980s. The author recalls shortages, the falsehood of state propaganda, childhood classical dance classes, and filming Rolan Bykov’s "Telegram."

The literary essay "City Dweller and Friend of the City Dwellers" is dedicated to the tragic fate of the poet Konstantin Batyushkov. The writer reflects on the nature of the classic poet’s mental illness, the burden of the era, and the intertwined connections between Batyushkov’s poems and the future masterpieces of Pushkin, Baratynsky, and Lermontov.

Poetic cycles

The final section is devoted to poems and fragments from the poem "Elena," written in the 1980s and 1990s. They explore the themes of the transience of time, memory, literary calling, and the coming of age at the turning point of historical eras. The poetic lines seamlessly continue the leitmotif of the entire book: the search for personal truth amid the chaos of the outside world.