Russia

Alexander Chayanov: Путешествие моего брата Алексея в страну крестьянской утопии (The Journey of My Brother Alexei to the Land of Peasant Utopia)

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The latest addition to my website is Alexander Chayanov‘s Путешествие моего брата Алексея в страну крестьянской утопии (The Journey of My Brother Alexei to the Land of Peasant Utopia). This is a 1920 novel set in 1984 (yes, thirty-nine years before George Orwell got there), written by a well-respected Soviet agricultural economist, whose political views … Read more

Victor Pelevin: Жизнь насекомых (The Life of Insects)

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The latest addition to my website is Victor Pelevin‘s Жизнь насекомых (The Life of Insects). This is a thoroughly original book which takes as its premise the idea that insects can also have human form and behave and act like humans. We have mosquitoes who travel the world, looking for the ideal blood to suck, … Read more

Sergei Lebedev: Предела забвения (Oblivion)

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The latest addition to my website is Sergei Lebedev‘s Предела забвения (Oblivion). The Russian title means something like The Limits of Oblivion, though much of the novel is about recovering lost memories, specifically lost memories of the Soviet era of prison camps. The unnamed narrator is rescued twice by a man he calls Grandfather II. … Read more

Eugene Vodolazkin: Лавр (Laurus)

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The latest addition to my website is Eugene Vodolazkin‘s Лавр (Laurus), a superb Russian novel telling the story of a fifteenth century healer, mystic and quasi-saint. Arseny, as he is initially called, though he changes his name a few times, and ends up being called Laurus, lives with his grandfather, Christofer, from the age of … Read more

Alisa Ganieva: Праздничная гора (The Mountain and the Wall)

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The latest addition to my website is Alisa Ganieva‘s Праздничная гора (The Mountain and the Wall), a novel from Dagestan. Dagestan is a republic which is still part of Russia and next door to Chechnya. The Chechen war has spilled over into Dagestan. As an Islamic republic, like Chechnya, there is a rise in Islamisation, … Read more

Russian literature

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I have now read twenty Russians novels over the past couple of months, which should be able to give me some insight into the Russian novel but I am not sure that it does. Last year, I did the same with Icelandic novels but, of course, Iceland is a much smaller country and has a … Read more

Leonid Girshovich: Прайс [Preis]

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The latest addition to my website is Leonid Girshovich‘s Прайс [Preis]. This novel is set in the fictitious town of Ijma, somewhere in Siberia, during the 1950s. It had originally been inhabited by a native population but Stalin had sent many Jews there, during the period when he considered all Jews automatically as dissidents. But … Read more

Dmitry Furmanov: Чапаев (Chapaev)

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This is a lively account of the exploits of the Russian commander, Vasily Chapaev, a historical person who fought and was killed in the Russian Civil War, fighting against the Whites under Alexander Kolchak. The story is told by Furmanov, who appears in the book as Fyodor Klichkov, Chapaev’s political commissar during the campaign. Klichkov/Furmanov … Read more