Letter Before Exile By Fyodor Dostoyevsky A letter the author wrote to his brother, immediately before his transport into Siberian exile. Memoir
Clear Ponds By Yuri Nagibin A truly wonderful memoir of life growing up along Moscow's boulevard, by a writer hardly published in English. Memoir
The Shopping Renaissance By Mikhail Bulgakov A consideration of what NEP wrought in Moscow, from one of Russia's greatest writers. Memoir
Khitrovka By Vladimir Gilyarovsky One of the most famous chapters from this classic work, about the seamy underbelly of Moscow at the turn of the last century. Memoir
Safe Conduct By Boris Pasternak Before committing himself to poetry, Pasternak considered pursuing a career in music. In these early chapters from his memoir he recounts his early fascination with music and his relationship with the composer Alexander Scriabin. Memoir
Notes Upon Russia By Sigismund von Herberstein First published in 1549, von Herberstein’s account of Moscow (and Russia more generally) was the main early European source of information on Russia in the sixteenth century. Memoir
Nurse By Svetlana Alexievich A profoundly moving story of a modern war nurse in Afghanistan, by the Nobel Prize winning author. Memoir
A Black Woman's Odyssey By Nancy Gardner Prince A memoir from an American who witness some of the most critical events in Russian history, in 1825. Memoir
On the Banks of the Seine By Irina Odoyevtseva A telling memoir of life in Paris for Russians in the 1920s and 1930s. Memoir
A Journey in Autumn to Bagrovo By Sergei Aksakov and James Duff A memoir of a harrowing crossing of the Volga River in fall. Memoir
Sevastopol in December By Lev Tolstoy An excerpt from Tolstoy's classic account of the Crimean War. Memoir
