Veliky Guslyar

Veliky Guslyar or Veliky Gusliar (Russian: Великий Гусляр is a fictional Russian town created by the Russian writer Kir Bulychev for his humorous science fiction stories. It is a place where various wonders and fantastic encounters with aliens happen to ordinary people.

The prototype of Veliky Guslyar is Veliky Ustyug. However, the names of the recurring characters, such as Korneliy Udalov, Nikolay Lozhkin, or Aleksandr Grubin, were taken from the address book of Vologda for 1913. On the other hand, the name of the absent-minded professor Лев Христофорович Минц was taken from Bulychev's friend, Lev Mironovich Mints, upon his request.

The introduction to the second part of the 1972 collection Чудеса в Гусляре (Guslyar Wonders) gives a (fictional) detailed description of the town, its history, economy, demography, and an explanation why aliens when visiting the Earth, of all places, pick Veliky Guslyar.

The first story of the cycle is Связи личного характера ("Svyazi Llichnogo Haraktera", translated as "The Personal Touch" in 1983) published in Znanie-Sila magazine, 1970, no 6, pp. 47-48. There is an apocryphal story that it was first published in 1967. In fact, in 1967, while in Bulgaria, Bulychev wrote a "potboiler" short story, translated in Bulgarian as Неоспоримото доказателство ("Irrefutable evidence") published in magazine Kosmos. Returning to the Soviet Union, Bulychev wrote "Svyazi Llichnogo Haraktera", a different story with the same plot idea.