Intrigue

Meeting of the garage cooperative must exclude four own members because of a new highway's building. After the meeting it becomes clear that the exit door is closed by one of the members, who requires an equitable solution.

The members of a Soviet cooperative have pooled their money to have a badly needed parking garage built. But it turns out that the garage will have four fewer spaces than planned. In brutal Soviet style, the four least-well connected members are evicted from the cooperative in a mock vote, losing their entire investment. But one member, Malayeva, does the unthinkable. As if taking on the entire corrupt Soviet system, she quixotically locks down the meeting room and throws away the key. Chaos reigns through the night until the privileged are forced to negotiate for the first time in their lives. A madcap, rollicking, biting satire that Brezhnev banned.—Boris Shafir <shafir@hsi.com>, edited by Dean Meservy