That's "Ovod" in Russian. It was a part of the mandatory school cirriculum at some point, and a gadfly is one nasty insect, so the name sticks really well. Eve

That's "Ovod" in Russian. It was a part of the mandatory school cirriculum at some point, and a gadfly is one nasty insect, so the name sticks really well. Even if not everyone is Soviet Union read the book, pretty much everyone know about it. But it'd be pushing it to say it was a genuienly popular book. It was just a mandatory reading material, because ... you know ... it's about revolutionaries.