"A Nasty Story" (Russian: Скверный анекдот, Skverny anekdot), also translated as "A Disgraceful Affair", "A Most Unfortunate Incident", "An Unpleasant Predicament", "A Bad Business" and "A Nasty Anecdote", is a satirical short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
On his way home, he spontaneously decides to test his theory by presenting himself, uninvited, at the wedding feast of one of his lowliest subordinates.
After drinking a bit too much with two fellow civil servants, the protagonist, Ivan Ilyich Pralinsky, expounds on his desire to embrace a philosophy based on kindness to those in lower status social positions.
Being a non-drinker and completely out of his element, the General fails spectacularly in his quest: far from winning anyone's admiration, a series of increasingly inappropriate and scandalous events unfold.
[2]Richard Pevear proposes, in his introduction, that the story's target is "the spirit of reform that spread through Russia in the early years of the reign of the 'tsar-liberator' Alexander II, who came to the throne in 1855.