There’s no doing without hay in the village. The cows eat it, and the sheep, and the hens need loads of it for their nests. And it comes in handy for people too, when they stuff their mattresses with it and lie on them forevermore, because the scent is just marvelous.

Our old gals in the village cast a wary eye on all food from the store, because who knows what they’ve got in there?

When you are deep in the woods, enjoying a day of raspberry picking with friends, anything is possible.

A woman returns to the village of her birth and an unlikely and fateful connection ensues.

What do you do with a thief and miscreant who just won’t stop thieving? Why, send him off to St. Petersburg of course.

It was Nikolayev’s birthday, which in ordinary years would always start bright and early... but this was no ordinary year...

In Russia, valenki are as near as you can get to the country's number-one footwear after regular leather boots.

In which the Rural Council takes up the case of “The Conduct of Nikolayev, N. N.”

When the district medic comes around, the stage is set for a skirmish between modern and traditional medicine.

“On Saturdays, smoke drifts over the village. The banyas are being heated.” Let’s go!

It is surprisingly simple (in certain circumstances) to mix up homebrew with other, less harmful things.

“Nikolayev hated the cat, wet socks, and his mother-in-law.”