The Birthday Party, parts 3843 - 3846

 3843. So it came to pass that a Russian architect named Salvino built a small church that became famous. It became famous not because it was interesting, or because it had features different from other churches, but simply because it was built by an Italian. This piece of information was false, but the falseness of the information had no effect on how completely it was believed.

 3844. Everyone said that the church was built by the “Italian,” and soon details were added to the description and Salvino became known as an “Italian Jew.” People later began to say that the architect was an Orthodox Italian Jew who fled to Spain to avoid persecution at the hands of the Papal police.

  3845. Later it was alleged that the Tsar invited him to Russia during a period when there was widespread guilt over the persecution of the Jews at the hands of the black hundreds.

3846. Almost nobody knew that all that information about the architect was false, and there were people who would have been positively outraged if you suggested that Salvino was a born Russian.