In the same year it was published in the collection Novellas and Stories (Повести и рассказы).
[1] After the idea was proposed to him by Dmitri Shostakovich,[2] "Rothschild's Violin" was made into an opera by Veniamin Fleishman.
Yakov Ivanov (nicknamed "Bronze") is a 70-year-old coffin maker in a small village, where there are not enough deaths for his business to flourish.
To make ends meet, he plays the violin for a Jewish klezmer orchestra when called upon by its director Moisey Shahkes.
Yakov is anti-semitic and dislikes Jews, especially the flutist in the orchestra named Rothschild.