title: The Man with the Black Coat: Russia's Literature of the Absurd (European Classics)
author: Daniil Kharms
description: Text: English (translation)<br /> Original Language: Russian
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
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  The Man Who Was  
    
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  
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  # The Man Who Was
  
  
  ### Rudyard Kipling
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  LET it be clearly understood that the Russian is a delightful person till he
  tucks his shirt in. As an Oriental he is charming. It is only when he insists
  upon being treated as the most easterly of Western peoples, instead of the
  most westerly of Easterns, that he becomes a racial anomaly extremely
  difficult to handle. The host never knows which side of his nature is going to
  turn up next.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Dirkovitch was a Russian-a Russian of the Russians, as he said-who appeared to
  get his bread by serving the czar as an officer in a Cossack regiment, and
  corresponding for a Russian newspaper with a name that was never twice the
  same. He was a handsome young Oriental, with a taste for wandering through
  unexplored portion