Content Warning: The source text and this guide refer to violent repression and antisemitism.

Yelchin depicts Russian society as obsessed with rank and status. From a young age, children such as Sasha desire the red scarf as a token of recognition for their dedication to communism and Stalin. Sasha doesn’t only value the scarf for personal validation, however; he also sees it as a badge of honor that will validate his commitment and good standing in front of his classmates. Comrade Stukachov, the neighbor who reports Zaichik so that he can take over the biggest room in the apartment, displays a more nefarious preoccupation with asserting his status. Although Stukachov covets the larger and more luxurious room for practical reasons too (Stukachov has a large family that is cramped in a smaller room), he smiles and takes pleasure in deposing Zaichik from his higher position on the social hierarchy.

Yelchin explores how The Obsession With Status is reflected in Russian culture, including within its literature, by incorporating two famous Russian writers in the story: Nikolai Gogol and Anton Chekov. Both writers delivered biting satirical commentary on the corrosive Russian obsession with rank.

The novel’s title and Stalin’s sentient nose that features in Chapter 25 allude to Gogol’s short story “The Nose,” written in 1836.