---
product_id: 19419726
title: "Fur Hat"
brand: "vladimir voinovich"
price: "€ 17.95"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.ie/products/19419726-fur-hat
store_origin: IE
region: Ireland
---

# Fur Hat

**Brand:** vladimir voinovich
**Price:** € 17.95
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Fur Hat by vladimir voinovich
- **How much does it cost?** € 17.95 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ie](https://www.desertcart.ie/products/19419726-fur-hat)

## Best For

- vladimir voinovich enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted vladimir voinovich brand quality
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## Description

Fur Hat

## Images

![Fur Hat - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41lyfZBCSsL.jpg)
![Fur Hat - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ubKcyfgBL.jpg)
![Fur Hat - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31-ndH-6XgL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The hat is the pride of man
  

*by L***3 on Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2005*

for he who cannot keep his hat on before kings and emperors is no free man.  SchillerWhen one thinks of what may loosely be referred to as Soviet `dissident' literature there is a tendency to think of long, grim, dark stories. Heavyweight volumes on issues of life, death, and the oppressive nature of a totalitarian regime mark the works of Solzhenitsyn, Pasternak, Grossman, and Rybakov.  But Vladimir Voinovich will have none of that. Starting with is best-known work, "The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin" and continuing through his latest book "Monumental Propaganda" Voinovich has used satire as a weapon aimed at the heart of the Soviet state - its bureaucracy.  Voinovich has always drawn his pen at the cronyism, the arrogance, the preening sense of grasping materialism to acquire western clothes, food, and cigarettes and yes the blatant and latent anti-Semitism that has reared its ugly head at regular intervals in the last 100 years.The Soviet authorities no doubt lacked the sense of humor that Voinovich's readership had.  He was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union in 1974 and send into exile, like Solzhenitsyn, in 1980.  In a famous response to the statement of Leonid Brezhnev that Voinovich brought harm to the prestige of the Soviet government, Voinovich published a reply that said simply: "I have not undermined the prestige of the Soviet government. The Soviet government, thanks to the efforts of its leaders and your personal contributions, has no prestige. Therefore, in all fairness, you ought to revoke your own citizenship."Voinovich's The Fur Hat takes direct aim at the same Soviet Writers' Union that expelled him in 1974.  The `hero' of this tale is Yefim Rakhlin. He considers himself a good writer because his eleven books, all about hardworking members of Soviet society who place the State above their individual wants and desires.  According to the narrator (a thinly-veiled Voinovich), Rakhlin is a hack who writes uninspired prose about unbelievable characters. For all intents and purposes, Rakhlin is a true-believer.Rakhlin's world starts to unravel when he hears from his colleagues that the Writers' Union is giving out fur hats to all its members.  It turns out that the quality of the hat (with reindeer fawn being top of the line) depends on each writer's status in the bureaucratic pecking order.  Although he doesn't expect reindeer fawn he finds out that his hat ranks him about as low as one can get for status purposes: he is assigned a fur hat made out of "fluffy tomcat".  This devastating blow to his ego sets Rakhlin on a quest for a better hat.As Rakhlin's emotions spiral out of control he finds himself dealing with an anti-Semitic neighbor (who also hears voices) who connects the disappearance of his house cat with Rakhlin's fluffy tomcat hat. His protest finds him threatening to publish his books in the west and he also ends up writing prose driven by despair and anger which, ironically, turns out to be the best work he has ever done. Voinovich keeps the pot and the plot bubbling along nicely as the story reaches its bittersweet climax.Voinovich has a keen eye for detail. His portrayal of Rakhlin and the apparatchiks that populate the Writers' Union are funny and come across as very accurate. As a former member of the Writers' Union Voinovich certainly had a lot to draw on and his characterizations, thought clearly satirical, have a ring of truth to them.The Fur Hat is a slim volume but it packs a punch.  It is both funny and insightful and well worth reading.L. Fleisig

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Miaow
  

*by A***N on Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2020*

Voinovich wrote great satire about the Soviet Union. In this one, he took on the Writers' Union which expelled him a decade earlier. In this book, the protagonist is an apolitical so-so writer. When the WU announces that writers will receive a hat in appreciation for their work, it is clarified that the quality of the hat will depend on how the WU views each writer (in a utopia where everyone is supposed to be absolutely equal). He will be assigned a hat made from cat fur. Usually mild and unassuming, he goes ballistic on learning this and tries to pull as many strings as he can in order to get a hat worthy of his self-appraised worth. Throughout we are introduced to all sorts of characters and see that anti-Semitism was alive and well in the Soviet Union.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    You can’t make this stuff up
  

*by J***D on Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2019*

The real trouble for satirists of the old Soviet Union was that reality itself was do absurd. Voinovich manages to make a ridiculous story sound quite plausible.

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*Product available on Desertcart Ireland*
*Store origin: IE*
*Last updated: 2026-03-07*