The novel "The City Without Jews" (1922), by Hugo Bettauer, a native of the Viennese suburbs, seemed to its contemporaries a humorous example of a "journalistic novel" in the spirit of the New Objectivity... until 11 years later, a native of Upper Austria decided to turn it into reality.

It all begins with the Austrian Chancellor proposing an initiative to the National Assembly: to expel all Jews of all ages from the country within six months, in order to strengthen the national spirit of the young republic. The law is passed, the Jews leave, and within two years, glittering Vienna is transformed into a shabby provincial village, described by Bettauer with the enthusiasm of a seasoned science fiction writer.

The first Russian-language edition of the prophetic insight of the Austrian classic, who died from the bullet of a right-wing fanatic three years after writing the book.