Russian Short Stories

Showing 13–24 of 25 results

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Page Count: 62Year: 1877
The story centers on an unnamed narrator, the self-proclaimed “ridiculous man,” who has fallen into a state of total nihilism and indifference. Convinced that nothing in the world matters, he decides to commit suicide. However, a chance encounter with a distraught young girl who begs him for help for her dying mother stirs a confusing […]
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The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Page Count: 140Year: 1880
The story takes place in 16th-century Seville during the Spanish Inquisition. Jesus Christ returns quietly to Earth, where His miracles are instantly recognized by the adoring populace. His presence, however, immediately threatens the established order of the Church. The ninety-year-old Grand Inquisitor, the all-powerful cardinal of the city, orders Christ’s immediate arrest. That night, the […]
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The Mysterious Portrait by Nikolai Gogol
Page Count: 80Year: 1842
A young and destitute artist, Andrei Chartkov, buys a mysterious portrait of an old moneylender in a shop. The moneylender’s eyes possess a terrifying, almost lifelike intensity. Chartkov soon discovers a hidden cache of gold in the portrait’s frame. Yielding to temptation, he abandons his true calling and begins painting fashionable, soulless portraits on commission, […]
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The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol
Page Count: 90Year: 1832
At the center of the plot is the love of the blacksmith and icon painter Vakula for the most beautiful girl in the village, Oksana, the daughter of the wealthy Cossack Chub. The proud and headstrong Oksana mocks the enamored Vakula and sets an impossible condition: she will marry him only if he brings her […]
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The Sevastopol Sketches by Leo Tolstoy
Page Count: 190Year: 1856
This cycle consists of three essays written by Tolstoy as a participant in the defense of Sevastopol. The work is one of the first examples of “trench truth” in Russian literature, showing war without romanticization. “Sevastopol in December” takes the reader directly to the hospital, where the unpretentious heroism and calmness of simple Russian soldiers […]
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The Squabble by Nikolai Gogol
Page Count: 120Year: 1835
A satirical tale about how two inseparable neighbors and landowners, Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich, become enemies over an absolute trifle. The heroes’ friendship collapses when Ivan Ivanovich attempts to trade his neighbor for an old rifle, and Ivan Nikiforovich refuses and calls him a “goose” (gusak). This single word triggers an absurd war. Trivial […]
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The Steel Flea by Nikolai Leskov
Page Count: 80Year: 1881
The story is a satirical folk tale that begins when Emperor Alexander I and his Cossack aide Platov visit England. The English craftsmen, wishing to impress the Tsar, present a marvelous, minute steel flea (a clockwork trinket) that can dance. After Alexander’s death, the next Tsar, Nicholas I, challenges his own countrymen to outperform this […]
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The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov
Page Count: 144Year: 1986
Upon emigrating, the journalist managed to take with him only one blue Finnish suitcase. Inside were eight completely random objects, each of which serves as the key to a separate, often absurd and tragicomic story from his past life. Among these relics are a decent but worn suit of a deceased bandit; crepe women’s stockings, […]
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The Zone by Sergei Dovlatov
Page Count: 192Year: 1982
The action takes place in a strict-regime labor camp in the Komi ASSR. The author serves as a guard. The book describes the brutal fights between prisoners with sharpened rasp files and the eating of a killed dog due to starvation. The camp administration orders the prisoners to paint a huge portrait of Lenin on […]
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War’s Unwomanly Face by Svetlana Alexievich
Page Count: 384Year: 1985
The book opens with the shocking, intimate revelations of hundreds of women who participated in the Great Patriotic War. From a sniper who recounts the difficulty of taking the first shot to a nurse who shares the details of fear, hunger, and filth on the front lines. Alexievich records these monologues to restore the authentic, […]
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Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War by Svetlana Alexievich
Page Count: 304Year: 1989
From the first pages, the book unleashes the grief of mothers whose sons returned from the Afghanistan War in “zinc coffins.” This documentary chronicle is built on the testimonies of veterans, nurses, and families who survived the horror of the “undeclared war” and, worse, the betrayal and lies they faced upon returning home. It is […]
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An Honest Thief by Dostoevsky
Page Count: 129Year: 1848
Dostoevsky relentlessly explores the complexity of human nature, exposing its vulnerability to vices, social pressure, and existential despair. In each story, deep compassion for the fallen and the downtrodden is evident, alongside a sharp critique of hypocrisy and the moral decay of society. The author forces us to peer into the abyss of despair that […]
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