Tale of the Troika

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Tale of the Troika (Сказка о Тройке) is a 1968 satirical science fiction novel written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky that criticises both Soviet bureaucracy and somewhat the Soviet scientific environment. Although the novel itself is not directed against state per se and a number of points underlined are true of modern day bureaucracy and science, it met with a cold reaction during Soviet times and was quite difficult to obtain, therefore achieving a "forbidden fruit" status.

The novel exists in two different versions. One version can be considered a more direct sequel to Monday Begins on Saturday, at the end of which the main character is told he will be sent to Kitezhgrad for a business trip, and that is where this version of Tale of the Troika takes place. The other version takes place in Tmutarakan', on a previously unexplored and unreachable floor of the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry.