Letting the red rooster fly and catching a golden fish are just a small part of what an oprichnik, the hope and support of the Russian state, must accomplish in a single day. Word and deed are his motto, loyalty to his superiors is his principle, doublethink is his morality, and violence is his instrument. Vladimir Sorokin's novella "Day of the Oprichnik" is both a comical spectacle capable of making you laugh out loud and a bleak prophecy. The oprichnik thrives in Sorokin's Moscow of the near future—because he is irreplaceable.
"Day of the Oprichnik," first published in 2006, has been translated into twenty languages. In 2013, the novella was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.