As soon as all the residents have left town, the rain stops. Golem leaves the last. Banev and Diana enter the city, now disappearing under the rays of Sun. They see Irma and Bol-Kunats all grown up in a day and happy, and Banev's saying to himself: "All this is nice and fine, but I mustn't forget to return." Shared ideas The novel shares some ideas with later works like The Second Invasion from Mars, Roadside Picnic (a non-standard alien invasion), and The Time Wanderers. Cultural references The prototype of Victor Banev is, according to Boris Strugatsky, "a generalized image of the Bard." Among those included in this image, Strugatsky named Alexander Galich, Yuliy Kim, Bulat Okudzhava and Vladimir Vysotsky. With the permission of Vladimir Vysotsky, a slightly modified version of his song "I'm fed up to the neck, chin up .... " is used in the story. Boris Strugatsky explained that the original story ended with the Golem's words, "... poor beautiful duckling", and that the ending with a happy ending, writers came up with later, while trying to prepare the story for publication. In an off-line interview, Boris Strugatsky confirmed that slimies came from the future. But this future is a terrible thing and they returned to the past, trying to change it. The success of the operation changed the future and destroyed slimies. The names of many characters in the story are borrowed from the classical mythologies and reflect the essence of their carriers. For example: Pavor Summan, "medical officer", but actually a counter-intelligence officer Pavor - Greek god of fear, moon god of war Mars; Summan - Roman god of nocturnal lightning. Flamen Juventa, the nephew of the chief of police, "a member of the Legion of liberty", "the young Goliath in a sports jacket, sparkling with numerous logos, our simple home Sturmführer, faithful to support the nation with a rubber truncheon in his back pocket, storm Left, right and moderates Flamen - priests in ancient Rome. Juventas - the Roman goddess of youth. Yule Golem - head doctor leprosarium, playing the role of mediator between slimies and the outside world Golem - from Jewish mythology, artificial person, created out of clay and execute the instructions of its creator. English releases Arkadii Natanovich Strugatskii, The Ugly Swans translated by Alice Stone Nakhimovsky and Alexander Nakhimovsky, New York: MacMillan, Arkady Strugatsky, The Ugly Swans, New York: Collier