Leningrad, 1928: Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky founded the avant-garde literary group "OBERIU". Their texts were based on parody, galgenhumor and absurd situations. 
Here is the very beginning of "The Old Woman", a masterpiece story by Daniil Kharms:  "In the courtyard an old woman is standing and holding a clock in her hands. I walk through, past the old woman, stop and ask her: 
- What time is it? 
- Have a look - the old woman says to me. 
I look and see that there are no hands on the clock. 
-There are no hands here - I say. 
The old woman looks at the clock face and tells me: - It's now a quarter to three…” 
(Kharms is my favorite writer of very short stories, together with István Örkény, Hungary, and Julio Cortázar, Argentina). 
Kharms' absurdist drama "Elizaveta Bam", was premiered in Leningrad in 1928, and three years later Alexander Vvedensky's masterpiece, the play "Christmas at the Ivanov's'. (This play is litmus test to determine whether one can enjoy morbid humor or not. Google it to check!).