In which we review a mystery, a Gulag guard's memoir, a parable of the avant-garde, and a collection of Valentin Rasputin's prose.

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.

Reading is communication from writer to reader, and yet in Anna Karenina, whenever a character reads, he or she is often only somebody holding a prop, not reading at all.

Known as a female Chekhov and skilled at painting the human condition as hilarious and hideous in one stroke, Teffi is a little-known author you should get to know. 

Where better to begin a literary tour of Moscow than at Mikhail Bulgakov’s notoriously bad apartment, which had an important cameo in his most famous work.

In which we review 12 titles that have been teetering in our review pile and that Russophiles should love.

When you set out to write a murder mystery in Russian – or even in another language, but set in Russia – you should be mindful that you are following in the footsteps the greatest Russian crime fiction writer of all times, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

A random query led us down a rabbit hole to see how online translation engines are humming these days. Won't you join us?

How it was that in the eighteenth century Russian mythology was trumped-up in the Western manner? Who wanted it? And where did we get Lel, Yarilo and Zimtserla? We explain everything you'd want to know about Russian fakelore.

Bob Blaisdell reviews Other Russias, an album of images and impressions of ordinary, unconnected Russian citizens who have unexpectedly found themselves activists. 

Some writers adapt easily to living abroad, after being cut off from their homeland. Sergei Dovlatov was not one of those writers.

Reviews of "Lenin on the Train," "Don't Let my Baby Do Rodeo," and "Mother Tongue".