Behind the Lines: Bugulma and Other Tales

Jaroslav Hašek is a Czech writer most famous for his wickedly funny, widely read, yet incomplete novel *The Good Soldier Schweik*, a series of absurdist vignettes about a recalcitrant WWI soldier. Hašek-in spite of a life of buffoonery and debauchery-was remarkably prolific. He wrote hundreds of short stories that all display both his extraordinary gift for satire and his profound distrust of authority. *Behind the Lines* presents a series of nine short stories first published in the *Prague Tribune* and considered to be some of Hašek's best. Based on his experiences as a Red Commissar in the Russian Civil War and his return to Czechoslovakia, *Behind the Lines* focuses on the Russian town of Bugulma, taking aim, with mordant wit, at the absurdities of a revolution. Providing important background and insight into *The Good Soldier Schweik*, this collection by a writer some call the Bolshevik Mark Twain is nevertheless much more than a tool for understanding his better-known novel; it is a significant work in its own right. A hidden gem remarkable for its modern, ribald sense of humor, *Behind the Lines* is an enjoyable, fast-paced anthology of great literary and historical value.