During the years 1918-20 the Czech satirist Jaroslav Hasek, author of The Good Soldier Svejk, served as a Soviet commissar in the small town of Bugulma in east central Russia. From his experiences there came a group of stories known as The Bugulma Tales, which have now been translated into English for the first time by Hasek's biographer Sir Cecil Parrott.
In this, the first of two programmes, he outlines their context in Hasek's work and reads the opening two tales of the series:
1: The Commandant of the Town of Bugulma
2: The Adjutant of the Commandant of the Town of Bugulma
In which Comrade Gashek gains and loses his position in Bugulma and has his first encounter with the eccentric Yerokhymov.