Tolstoy's Art One of the great novelists of Russia and of the world was born 170 years ago. We explore his art and life, and the impact he made on Russian literature.
Creating Anna Karenina When Tolstoy started Anna Karenina, he was forty-four. He guessed that he would finish the novel, conceived as only a novella, in two weeks. Anna Karenina took him more than four years.
Tolstoy's Message In the second half of his life, Tolstoy foresook his "frivolous" literary pursuits and sought The Truth about Life. We asked a renowned Tolstoyan to explain why this turned the world against Lev Tolstoy.
A Prophet and His Country Thirty-five years ago this month, a little book was published that changed Russia forever. On the anniversary of the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, we asked two esteemed observers to offer their views on the great writer's legacy.
In Tolstoy's Footsteps One hundred and twenty-five years ago, Lev Tolstoy made the first of several walking journeys from Moscow to Tula – a distance of nearly 200 kilometers. A pair of Americans retrace the great writer’s journey, in a considerably different Russia.
East Meets West on the Silver Screen A fascinating exploration of the links between Hollywood and the Russian film industry.
Looking for Tolstoy An American writer consumed by Anna Karenina goes in search of the great writer’s little-known refuge beyond the Volga, near Samara.
20: Tolstoy Bilingual Meet the Tolstoy you never knew! This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious.
Fall, Tolstoy, Mushrooms In honor of fall, and Russians' favorite autumnal pastime – mushroom picking – we offer these two short stories by Lev Tolstoy – in both English and Russian!
When Chekhov Met Tolstoy On this day in 1895, two Titans of Russian literature met for the first time and had a swim. Or did they?
17 Readings on Tolstoy Today is the birthday of Lev Tolstoy. We scoured our archives and offer a listing of 17 articles we have published on the great author over the years.
Kashtanka – A Bilingual Reader A bilingual presentation of one of the great classics of Russian literature.
Moscow and Muscovites Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin.
The Moscow Eccentric Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
At the Circus This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
The Latchkey Murders Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Resilience ~ The Russian Version (Переживем) Call it resilience, grit, or just perseverance – it takes a special sort of person to have survived the last 100 years of Russian and Soviet history.
22 Russian Crosswords Test your knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and society with these 22 challenging puzzles taken from the pages of Russian Life magazine. Most all the clues are in English, but you must fill in the answers in Russian. If you get stumped, of course all the puzzles have answers printed at the back of the book.
Fearful Majesty This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
The Samovar Murders The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.
Murder at the Dacha Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.