Sir

I was delighted to see Carl Wunsch, in his News and Views item about the Moon and climate, endorsing the most aphoristic of Russian literary heroes, Kozma Prutkov (Nature 405, 743; 2000). However, referring to this ‘wise fool’ as a private (and adding the impressive Cossack-style drawing) is a mistake.

According to the biography accompanying his works — transcribed by a group of nineteenth-century satirists — he served as a Hussar corporal for three years. All his literary exercises are dated much later in his life, when he was in fact more of a science administrator, working in the State Assay Office responsible for analysing and hallmarking precious metals.