The themes around nihilism, alienation, introspection & inaction etc. with this book are well discussed but one of the many ways this book resonated with me was just the extent to which the unnamed author exhibited such mercurial behaviour. Candidly, my own emotions and views can also be so volatile and dependent on the most trivial of factors and the book offered for me a great degree of solace and reassurance. This of course is a common attribute of all of Dostoevsky’s work

Where to continue with Turgenev? So far I've read Rudin and found it to be a nice a read - you can clearly see Turgenev's fascination with western culture there as well and romance stuff. It was nice and all, he isn't as heavy as Dostoevsky or Tolstoy neither funny and smooth as Bulgakov but there is something about Turgenev that makes me want to read more of his stuff. So what should I read next?

I have to admit I'm having trouble with this guy. "Lazarus" is a brutal, scarring read. "Satan's Diary", though leavened a bit with some Gogol-ish absurdity, is somehow worse. I've scanned through the rest of the entries in my " Collected Works" volume and the guiding principle seems to be "All bleak, all the time." His short life in exile after the Revolution was mired in despair and poverty. Does anyone else have trouble getting through these very well written, perceptive, but utterly nihilistic tales?

Who was a better writer? Who should I start reading first?

’line..." And then suddenly he was unloaded at the small station at Zenzevatka and met by one single, calm, unarmed jailer. The jailer yawned: "All right, you'll spend the night at my house, and you can go out on the town as you like till morning. Tomorrow I'll take you to the camp." And Ans did go out. Can you understand what going out on the town means to a person whose term is ten years, who has already said good-bye to life countless times, who was in a Stolypin car that very morning and will be in camp the next day? And he immediately went out to watch the chickens scratching around in the station master's garden and the peasant women getting ready to leave the station with their unsold butter and melons. He moved three, four, five steps to the side and no one shouted "Halt!" at him. With unbelieving fingers he touched the leaves of the acacias and almost wept. And the special convoy is precisely that sort of miracle from beginning to end. You won't see the common prisoner transports this time. You don't have to keep your hands behind your back. You don't have to undress down to your skin, nor sit on the earth on your rear end, and there won't be any search at all. Your convoy guards approach you in a friendly way and even address you politely. They warn you, as a general precaution, that in case of any attempt to escape-We do, as usual, shoot. Our pistols are loaded and we have them in our pockets. However, let's go simply. Act natural. Don't let everyone see that you're a prisoner. (And I urge you to note how here, too, as always, the interests of the individual and the interests of the state coincide completely.)’

First I’m not sure where both parties interests overlap. The state wants the prisoner to not attempt escape and look like a prisoner. That makes sense, if you don’t expand the scope of the state to encompass the general population.

But, with the individual, they don’t want to escape or look like a prisoner, only because they don’t want to get shot. So, not a true overlap in my opinion.

But even if I’m supposed to believe that they overlap here, why does Solzhenitsyn urges to note this. Perhaps I forgetting something from previous passages?

I just read Turgenev's The End of Chertopkhanov and it feels like there is a lot of room to interpret the characters as reflecting the social issues of the 1850s, I wanna hear other people interpterion of the characters though

Hey folks, I'm reading Onegin for the first time, mostly using Nabokov's translation, which includes a number of neologisms. One that he uses several times is acientry, which appears to mean something like "old stuff" or "old ways."

One of numerous examples:

"Yet I ... what do I care? / I shall be true to ancientry." Chapter 3, 28.13-4

I don't speak Russian, but the Russian is:

"Но я... какое дело мне? / Я верен буду старине."

I know his translation is controversial - it would be really helpful for me to know if Nabokov is rendering a highly unusual word, or a neologism that Pushkin himself devised, as acientry, or if he just felt that there was no precise English equivalent for a common Russian term, so he had to make up a new word. I would certainly have a lot more sympathy for the former than the latter.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I came across a copy today in a used book store and was very happy about it because I've been looking to read it. However, I wanted to look up who translated this edition, but I couldn't find anything online. I'm wondering if anyone here knows the answer, or if anyone has read this edition and can attest to it's quality. Again, it is a 1966 edition printed by Airmont Publishing Company

Dostoyevsky's Demons came out in 1872 and Turgenev's Virgin Soil in 1877. Are there any later novels that focus on the theme of revolution or social change? If so please cite titles.

I’ve only read a short collection of his short stories - favorites being moloch, garnet bracelet and olesya - but what are his other works like and what is the general consensus about him?

Sorry but I couldn’t think of another place to ask. Askreddit dismisses anything I post.

As the title says. Aside from Maxim Gorky's "The Mother", does anyone know of any titles set around 1904/1905 or any of the mid/post-war literature set around the Russo-Japanese War? I've had several history books mention that it became a popular fiction subject for authors to write about at the time, but I haven't found any novels, or even short stories, published into English. Aside from Gorky's, of course. Found plenty tackling WWI and the 1917 Revolution, but so little about the Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 Revolution.

I'd even be willing to read something in its original Russian if there happened to an online version, I just am having a hard time finding anything so far.

I have started reading "The Silent Don" by Solohov, also reading "Anna Karenina" and I am somewhere in the middle, and "What is Art" by Tolstoy. I love all of them. However I am a slow reader and they will take a long time until I actually finish them. But as a greek poet(Kavafis) once said it doesn't matter the destination but the journey. <3

Hi all, I saw a screenshot online from a documentary about a Russian Man who reads to his pet bear. The man (Yuriy Panteleenko) sits with his pet bear (Stepan) and reads a book to it. I have been trying to locate the book in question. After a few days and various Subreddits, we have identified the Title of the book to be История России, however, due to the amount of books with this title, I am unable to find the specific author in question.

For context, this is purely a hyperfixation of mine, but I would love to know which book in particular this is.

The cover seems to show the Russian flag, along with the coat of arms (I think?) and is margined by around 10 portraits of presumably Russian Historical Figured.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

https://preview.redd.it/zlu6pzsrxj2e1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=ee06b8cf6011c4eb68955701278aef7f47cfaf0e

https://preview.redd.it/d6y8vsutxj2e1.png?width=2316&format=png&auto=webp&s=bb6e181d2a88b7279497ee080bb3920b638552d7

What is a good academic journal that focuses on the survivors of the Gulags? Ideally, one that also encompasses the effect of the Soviet Union on Ukraine?

I just want to get my thoughts out somewhere, If you were to reply please do not send any spoilers, first thing I would like to address is; it has to be a bit concerning on Vladimir’s end to write something like this about kids, the writing is very beautiful by this I mean that he had the ability to write about adults perfectly fine, I’m having a hard time reading this as it is truly disgusting to be put by force into a perspective of a pedophile, like my brain geniunely doesn’t comprehend the things that I’ve read, the main character is aware of how fucked up this is yet tries to soothe himself by justifying it I’m just at loss to words and even considered if I will continue but decided to push through, I’m taking this as a psychological study of a fucked up brain, it truly scares me that people like this exist and what about it a pedophile read this would this even be enjoyable? Like morals are really questioned here and that was rhetorical question I don’t want to know the answer to

And when I say abridged, I mean one-third the length of the full book, 184 pages. Why is this a thing? Why did early-20th-century translator C.J. Hogart do this to me? I kept thinking, “Wow, this is a really brisk read for mid-1800s Russian literature!” Then I stumbled across a plot summary that mentioned Oblomov slapping a guy and was like,”??????? He doesn’t tho??????”

Oh well, I guess it’s a good thing. I really liked the book, so now I get 400 more pages to enjoy :)

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Did anyone knows about good versions of Dostoyevski's work in native russian, I've been searching for some hours now and the results that I get from Google are not so good. I'am looking for a hardcover edition, faithful to the original text, i would thank you very much. Also, if there is some reliable way to ship it to any place in the world (Perú, South America), would be very important

Hi everyone. I want to share my translation of the poem (original below). Please let me know what you think:)

Squeezed my hands under dark lacy fabric “How’s that happened that you are so pale?” — That’s because a drink bitter and tragic
I have given to him in a grail.

I will never forget how he stepped out
Barely standing. Was tortured his face
And I ran down the stairs with no sound
Till the gates I have kept up my chase

And I cried to him, gasping: “It’s silly
All is past. If you leave, I will die”.
He just smiled at me calmly, so eery
“It is windy today. Go inside”

——

Сжала руки под темной вуалью…
«Отчего ты сегодня бледна?»
— Оттого, что я терпкой печалью.
Напоила его допьяна.

Как забуду? Он вышел, шатаясь,
Искривился мучительно рот….
Я сбежала, перил не касаясь,
Я бежала за ним до ворот.

Задыхаясь, я крикнула: «Шутка
Все, что было. Уйдешь, я умру».
Улыбнулся спокойно и жутко
И сказал мне: «Не стой на ветру».

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxQqRYTeUqCHwRilhVTKM8inSBLljaw2LX?si=G_A4ZbhVT86jtSdh

I love Sci-fi and Russian, Soviet literature. I recently discovered Isaac Asimov (not very Russian but he was born in Russia haha) and really want to know more about other writers or books on this topic!! Tysm!

Hello,

Does anyone know why it is so difficult to find these short stories in English? I've been driving myself crazy. Even my University library doesn't seem to have a copy which I find odd considering we have a large Slavic collection. Does anyone know where I can find these in English?