No single study could encompass the full range of contemporary Russian satire exhaustively, for satire is woven into the textual fabric of most of modern Russian literature. We do not think of Tolstaia, Bitov, Petrushevskaia, Aksenov or Makanin primarily as satirists, yet satire is a significant feature of their diverse styles. In limiting the scope of the present study, I have chosen to examine a few representative works intensively with the intention of demonstrating a common rhetorical procedure that may help us to describe contemporary Russian satire as a whole. Parody of the features associated with specific literary genres advances thematic satire in each of the seminal works I have considered. Rarely is the genre itself the target of satire; it is not the conventions of allegory or autobiography that satirists find objectionable or absurd. Rather generic parody provides a vehicle of exposing, mocking or condemning aspects of contemporary Russian/Soviet society which an author considers pernicious or ridiculous. The sophisticated use of parody makes all of these works densely referential and a full appreciation of the texts' satiric import is conditional on the reader's knowledge not only of contemporary Russian culture but also of the literary traditions that support it. In the Russian context, satire is not a liminal or “low” form of literary art.