History Literature / MondayBeginsOnSaturday

* MemeticBadass: Cristobal Junta has a ''lot'' of improbably cool rumors surrounding his persona InUniverse, such as that he had actually been the ''head'' of UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition at one time, or that he has a stuffed dummy at his office made from the corpse of his fellow taxidermist rival (who was [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets a Nazi, so it's okay]]). He is also FamedInStory for his sharp wit, style, and efficiency.

* PublicDomainCharacter: Merlin. Strangely, he's not the one with the MerlinSickness. It's worth mentioning that Merlin's personality is based on Merlin from ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'', not on [[KingArthur Arthurian Legends]] Merlin.

* [[invoked]]LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The book ends with a postscript allegedly written by Privalov himself, ranting at the authors for committing all the factual errors they supposedly made.

* NiceGuy: Edik Amperyan's main character trait in the book is his excessive politeness -- and [[invoked]][[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Privalov even calls the authors out]] on turning Edik into a FlatCharacter in the appendix.

* FunWithAcronyms: The secret institute is called the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry. In Russian, that abbreviates to '''[=NIIChaVo=]''', which sounds suspiciously like the Russian word for "nothing".
** One English translation gives the laboratory's name as "the '''N'''ational '''I'''nstitute for the '''T'''echnology of '''Wi'''tchcraft and '''T'''haumaturgy".

* AdamAndOrEve: The first pithecanthropus has two children named Add-Am and Eihoua. His own name was Ayyoukh, probably a play on Yahweh (normally written in Russian as Iyegova)

* BiggerOnTheInside: The Institute building. Outside, two stories and ten windows per story, inside it is over a kilometer wide and has twelve stories for institute alone, and over hundred other stories.

* CoolOldGuy: Both Cristobal Junta and Fyodor Simeonovich Kivrin are department heads at [=NIIChaVo=], who are well-respected by everyone at the institute and, in addition to being powerful wizards and capable administrators, often act as encouraging mentors to younger scientists. Both of them are also at least several centuries old: Junta was a member of UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition, while Kivrin was active at least as far back as [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia the first Romanovs' reign]].

* DreamWithinADream: Privalov goes through a series of these (one more surreal than the next) on his first night in the Hut on Chicken Legs, as a result of sleeping on a magical couch.
* FascinatingEyebrow: As a MagicalGesture, no less. "Janus Poluektovich went into his office, eliminating negligently as he walked, with one universal flick of his eyebrow, my entire chamber of horrors."
* ForHappiness: The Institute is dedicated to the problems of human happiness and the meaning of human life.

** One English translation gives the laboratory's name as "'''N'''ational '''I'''nstitute for the '''T'''echnology of '''Wi'''tchcraft and '''T'''haumaturgy".
** The Scientific Research Institute of Kabbalistics and Witchcraft is also mentioned. It abbreviates to [=NIIKaVo=] (Sounds like "No one" or "Nobody").
* GratuitousFrench: Vybegallo tries to use French to seem intelligent, but constantly fails -- in no small part because all his French phrases are taken out of ''Literature/WarAndPeace'' and he doesn't seem to understand what some of them actually mean. This contrasts with his usual overly-colloquial manner of speech, hinting at uneducated upbringing in Russian province.

* HumanoidAbomination: The Completely Satisfied Cadaver turns out to be the human-made Cosmic Horror. He is destroyed by Roman Oira-Oira just before he could ''collapse space and stop time''.
* IWantMyJetpack: Parodied with Privalov's travel into future narratively imagined possibilities.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Viktor Korneev has very little manners but will never actually do anything hurtful to anyone. For example, when he cannot legally borrow a device from a museum, he resorts to stealing it at nights--but does his best to return it in the morning before anyone gets in trouble for the theft.

** Mixed with TakeThat: Vybegallo is modeled after Trofim Lysenko, the infamous Soviet politico and quack agriculturist/geneticist.
** Janus Nevstruev was based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Aleksandrovich_Mikhailov Alexander Mikhailov]], then-director of Pulkovo Observatory, where Arkady Strugatsky used to work; Fyodor Kivrin, on Creator/IvanYefremov; and Roman Oyra-Oyra, on the Soviet mathematician [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Novikov_(mathematician) Sergei Novikov]].
* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The book ends with a postscript allegedly written by Privalov himself, ranting at the authors for committing all the factual errors they supposedly made.

* MagnusMeansMage: A minor character, Magnus Red'kin, is a bumbling enchanter and inventor of invisible pants.
* MemeticBadass: Cristobal Junta has a ''lot'' of improbably cool rumors surrounding his persona InUniverse, such as that he had actually been the ''head'' of the Spanish Inquisition at one time, or that he has a stuffed dummy at his office made from the corpse of his fellow taxidermist rival (who was [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets a Nazi, so it's okay]]). He is also FamedInStory for his sharp wit, style, and efficiency.
* MerlinSickness: At the end of the third chapter, the young scientists figure out that [[spoiler:the institute director Janos Nevstruev, specifically his U-Janus version, is a "contramote", i.e. lives backwards in time. It turns out that A-Janus is the original, who, at some point in his future, will have subjected himself to an experiment that made him jump 48 hours back into the past every midnight. This created the U-Janus, who remembers the future, having lived through it already, but not the past, which is his subjective future]].
* MugglesDoItBetter: Battle magic is in severe decline ever since UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. The last worker in the corresponding department managed to hold out until he heard of the H-bomb. No one has seen him ever since.
* NaiveNewcomer: Sasha Privalov transfers to [=NIIChaVo=] at the end of the first chapter, having only learned of its existence half-way through said chapter. As such, he is very new to the weirdness of the institute and has trouble adjusting to its stranger aspects.
* NiceGuy: Edik Amperyan's main character trait in the book is his excessive politeness -- and [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Privalov even calls the authors out]] on turning Edik into a FlatCharacter in the appendix.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Modest Kamnoedov is the supply and maintenance manager and chief bursar of the institute, so it is his job to make sure the scientists don't waste too much money on crazy experiments. That said, he is a very tame example compared to the bureaucrats with whom Privalov and Co. butt heads in ''Literature/TaleOfTheTroika''.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: A pair of "Maxwell's macrodemons" named Enter and Exit stand guard over the door to the director's office during the off-hours. A [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_demon Maxwell's demon]] is a thought experiment in theoretical physics, an entity that would break the second law of thermodynamics by letting fast particle cross a certain threshold while bumping back the slow ones. [=NIIChaVo=] seems to have re-purposed human-sized versions of this demon into bouncers.
* OurHomunculiAreDifferent: Vybegallo's creates artificial humanoids, dubbed "cadavers" by everyone but him, to test the effects of consumerism on a human happiness. The first one is utterly incapable of satisfying its needs and quite naturally dies within minutes of being activated; the second is capable of satisfying only its bodily needs and suffers from HorrorHunger until [[spoiler:it literally bursts into pieces from overeating]]; and the third one [[spoiler:turns out to be a PhysicalGod that grabs everything of value it can reach, then attempts to break reality, but is killed by Oira-Oira]].
* PhysicalGod: The institute has a legit one on staff, albeit a deconstructed variation: Sabaoth Bhaal[[{{UsefulNotes/Patronymic}} ovich]] Odin (not a MeaningfulName at all) is the only human in history to have ever solved the Omnipotence Formula and achieved just that. However, one of the constraints applied by the formula is that by using it, the wizard may not harm any living being, and after Odin couldn't think of any such application, he has forsworn magic altogether and filed for transfer into the tech and hardware department. He is still a carrier of enormous magical power, however, and Privalov observes that clocks actually go ''faster'' in his presence.

* ReferenceOverdosed: Pretty much everything in the novel can be read as a comment on or a homage to something else... From a snarky sendup of Aristotle's Politics, of all things, to stealth-quotes from classic Russian novels to a pastiche of contemporaneous trashy SF&F now mostly forgotten and lyrics of popular songs and propaganda doggerel.

* SpaceTimeEater: Vybegallo's third homunculus, the universal consumer. As Oira-Oira puts it, "He will gather up all the material valuables he can lay his hands on, then he’ll fold space, wrap himself up in a cocoon, and stop time."

* TaxidermyTerror and TaxidermyIsCreepy: Junta's (reported) favourite study decoration, a stuffed [[ThoseWackyNazis SS]] [[UsefulNotes/CommonRanks Standartenführer]], and Junta himself, an accomplished taxidermist. [[PlayedForLaughs The Standartenführer was a good taxidermist, too, but Junta proved to be faster.]]
* ThoseTwoGuys: A. Pronitsatelniy and B. Pitomnik are Vybegallo's pet {{Tagalong Reporter}}s who appear several times through the book but don't do much except writing down and publishing his pseudo-scientific lingo. A fan theory suggests the two of them to be {{Author Avatar}}s (based on their initials).

* TokenGirl: Stella is pretty much the only notable female scientist in the book (although not the only female character, there is also the [=IzNaKurNozh=] groundskeeper Naina Kievna).
* TrappedInTVLand: In the third part, Privalov travels to an imaginary future made by the collective imagination of ScienceFiction writers. While he's not, strictly speaking, ''trapped'' there (he can leave at any moment), that part of the book seeks to parody tropes common to 1960s and earlier SF.

* WorldOfWeirdness: In the novel's realm, fairy tales are true, and it is seen as nothing out of the ordinary.

* DreamWithinADream: Privalov goes through a series of these on his first night (one more surreal than the next) in the Hut on Chicken Legs, as a result of sleeping on a magical couch.

* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' suggest to Junta that seeking solutions to problems that are known to not have any is a waste of time. (Unless you're really good at fencing, probably. Or you are Fyodor Simeonovich Kivrin.)

* RefusalOfTheCall: The protagonist muses on this trope in fiction and admits to disliking the behaviour of characters who, upon meeting the world of the unfamiliar and wonderful, try to run and hide away from it. He himself averts the trope - with level-headed enthusiasm and a knack for field experimentation.

* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' suggest to Junta that seeking solutions to problems that are known to not have any is a waste of time. (Unless you're really good at fencing, possibly.)

* HumanoidAbomination: The Completely Satisfied Cadaver turns out to be the human-made Cosmic Horror. He is destroyed by Roman Oyra-Oyra just before he could ''collapse space and stop time''.

* OurHomunculiAreDifferent: Vybegallo's creates artificial humanoids, dubbed "cadavers" by everyone but him, to test the effects of consumerism on a human happiness. The first one is utterly incapable of satisfying its needs and quite naturally dies within minutes of being activated; the second is capable of satisfying only its bodily needs and suffers from HorrorHunger until [[spoiler:it literally bursts into pieces from overeating]]; and the third one [[spoiler:turns out to be a PhysicalGod that grabs everything of value it can reach, then attempts to break reality, but is killed by Oyra-Oyra]].

* RedOniBlueOni: Cristobal Junta and Fyodor Simeonovich Kivrin. Kivrin is the Red Oni: a [[BigFun large, loud, and enthusiastic man]] always surrounded by the scent of fresh apples and good mood; Junta, meanwhile, is the Blue: TallDarkAndSnarky, with an aura of cool efficiency the scent of expensive cologne around him.

* TaxidermyTerror and TaxidermyIsCreepy: Junta's favourite study decoration, a stuffed [[ThoseWackyNazis SS]] [[UsefulNotes/CommonRanks Standartenführer]], and Junta himself, an accomplished taxidermist. [[PlayedForLaughs The Standartenführer was a good taxidermist, too, but Junta proved to be faster.]]

* CatchPhrase: "You will desist" by [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Modest Matveevich]]. Privalov [[BorrowedCatchphrase borrows]] it a few times.

* SelfDeprecation: The postscript tears into the authors about the supposed factual errors and [[FlatCharacter Flat Characters]].