In view of endless inquiries we would like to inform you that the writer M. Zoshchenko’s role in this work has largely been confined to correcting orthographic errors and straightening ideological content. The greater part of the work belongs to the abovementioned author, I. V. Kolenkorov. And so, in reality, the book’s cover should have borne the name of Kolenkorov. However, I. V. Kolenkorov, not wishing to pass for a man of means, relinquished the honor to M. Zoshchenko. The fee, of course, went to Ivan Vasilyevich in full.
In the process of reporting this, we take the opportunity to declare that various sentimental undertones, whimpers, and a certain ideological vacillation in this or that direction ought not be attributed to the head of the literary circle, but, in part, to the author I. V. Kolenkorov, and, in part, to the personages depicted in these tales.
Here, in these pages, an entire gallery of now-departing characters will pass before your eyes.
The new, contemporary reader must know them, in order to see the departing way of life in all its manifestations.
July 1928
S. L.