Jokes under Soviet communism were not just a welcome contrast to the dreariness of everyday life; they also helped undermine it. For example: "How do you deal with mice in the Kremlin?" "Put up a sign saying 'collective farm'. Then half the mice will starve and the others will run away."

Take this example, which is told twice in the book: A flock of sheep approaches the Finnish border in a panic, pleading to be allowed entry. "Beria ([Stalin]'s secret police chief) has ordered the arrest of all elephants," they explain. "But you're not elephants," reply the Finnish border guards in puzzlement. "Yes, but try explaining that to Beria."

"Jokes against the Party constitute agitation against the Party," raged Matvei Shkiriatov, a zealous Stalinist, at a Central Committee meeting in January 1933. That was echoed by Hitler's propaganda chief, Josef Goebbels, in 1939, when he wrote: "We will eradicate the political joke." But they didn't.