Arkady Inin. An Anthology of Satire and Humor from 20th-Century Russia

Let's pay each other compliments. I took on the task of writing about Arkady Inin to fulfill a long-standing need to create a heroic image. All my literary characters—crooks, bandits, and detectives—fail to embody the selfless, cold-blooded heroism that a true satirist and humorist must possess. Anyone who doesn't work in film doesn't know that making one editor laugh is much more difficult than making a million viewers laugh. And comedy writers themselves involuntarily amaze one by the fact that, after twenty years in film, they've retained a sense of humor at all. Inin has. Both in life and in his profession. In his literary worldview, Inin is a social consoler. He usually writes about women and men, about love and separation, about overcoming loneliness. Inin really wants the audience to cry at the end, but only from joy. His heroes grieve joyfully, and if they die, it's not fatally. Gorky's wanderer Luka is undoubtedly Inin's epigraphic hero—an adherent of the idea that any means of consolation are appropriate, be it just a sympathetic word, a simple joke, or even "an uplifting deception." Arkady Inin upliftingly deceives, consoles, and jokes—as best he can. Everything he does is informed by a sincere belief in the human need for the social fairytale situations he has invented. A conviction in the necessity of emotional enlightenment, a tireless need to sow the seeds of spiritual goodness and, even if it's in dreams that seem almost impossible to fulfill. And I hope, along with all of you, to look back on our future and his: how else has the gifted, cheerful, and joyful screenwriter Arkady Inin entertained, touched, and inspired us?

Georgy Weiner