The stories in the collection ‘The Swim,’ written in the late 1970s and early 1980s, show the emergence of Sorokin optics. Frozen Soviet life, tired people accustomed to doublethink, worn-out concepts come to life at the slightest author’s provocation. ‘National Economy’, ‘flying’, ‘swim’ turn out to be a fragile shell of suffering, burlesque and absurdity.