Vladimir Orlov - Danilov the Violist

But here's a strange thing.

When Danilov got home from the evening performance, he took his newspaper out of the mailbox, and an official paper from precinct 58 fell out. The paper, signed by Senior Lieutenant Yu. Nesynov, announced that a musical instrument (viola) of the work of the Italian master Mateo Albani, Bolzano, 2693 (confirmed by experts), belonging to citizen Danilov, V.A., had been found. Danilov was invited to the precinct house to identify the instrument.

"It can't be!" Danilov thought.

But he had always believed in his precinct.

He didn't sleep all night, and in the morning he rushed off to see Senior Lieutenant Nesynov.

It took seven minutes on streetcar 9 to reach the precinct house.

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NOTES:

Lobio -- a spicy bean salad from Georgia, USSR.

Kazachok -- a folk dance from the Ukraine

Pelmeni -- Siberian dumplings

Arbat -- one of the oldest sections of Moscow, comparable to Paris's Left Bank

Mazeppa -- was an eighteenth-century Ukrainian military leader.

Pioneers -- The Soviet equivalent of the Boy Scouts

MosConcert – The Moscow agency responsible for booking concert artists

Voevoda - Governor of a province in ancient Russia