Leningrad's own Jean Gabin, an old-timer, he used to be a full-time singer at first and survived a rebirth with Dorozhnaya song. He plays the big drum the way that makes Heine turn in his grave, realizing everything was not for nothing:
Beat on the drum and have no fear,
And kiss the commissary cook!
That is the science in its whole.
That is the deepest sense of the books.