The article deals with the theme of animals and wildlife in the works of Jaroslav Hašek devoted to the politics and political situation in Austria-Hungary on the eve of the last parliamentary elections in the history of this state (1911). The substitution of concepts, the shift of emphasis from political and social aspects to seemingly insignificant phenomena becomes the main artistic technique of Hašek the satirist, typical for most of his works. Hašek’s first translations into Russian appeared in the late 1920s, this was primarily due to the anti-religious propaganda that unfolded in the Soviet Union which many humorous works of the Czech satirist very successfully matched. Translators and publishers were mainly interested in religious motives in Hašek’s literary works.