‘Nine-Shoes’ is a collection of texts by Viktor Shenderovich, written in various (very different) years and serving as an artistic reflection on several eras in Russian life. For forty years—from the early Andropov era to the late Putin era—Shenderovich has been trying to answer the question of why the country never emerged from slavery and at what point we stopped hearing the warning signs. ‘I wasn't much of a Pimen,’ the author admits, ‘but I was a pretty good reagent. Much is clear in these texts, and from a distance, it's even clearer.’ The collection includes several previously unpublished stories, aphorisms, poems, and screenplays. And who is ‘Nine-Shoes’? Shenderovich himself, of course. Who else?