Anna Karenina By Lev Tolstoy In these excerpts from Tolstoy’s classic novel, we check in on Anna, Vronsky, Levin and Kitty after all have made their respective romantic choices. None, save perhaps Kitty, are realizing the happiness they dreamed of, but at least two of them will overcome this. Fiction
Domestic Bliss By Mikhail Zoshchenko Zoshchenko addresses the “women’s emancipation” effort that led to the creation of canteens, kindergartens and other social services meant to free women from traditional housework and thereby grant them a happy and dignified life. Fiction
A Traveler's Tale By Alexei N. Tolstoy In this quixotic tale within a tale, Tolstoy (who himself had a history of artistic opportunism) explores the experiences of a “superfluous man” whose life spans the Civil War and Revolution, who at once longs for his happy, carefree life before 1914, while reveling in how war “fans the soul.” Fiction
Gooseberries By Anton Chekhov An excerpt from Chekhov's classic tale about the different notions of happiness. Fiction
To An Unknown Friend By Mikhail Prishvin A short, eloquent piece on happiness, presented bilingually. Fiction
Oblomov By Ivan Goncharov An excerpt from the classic tale, where Oblomov describes his notion of true happiness. Fiction
On the Happiest Time of Life By Nikolai Karamzin It is the middle ages in life that are the most likely to be the happiest. Fiction
Women Writing By Olga Kuzmina On the incredible diversity and prescience of Russian women writers. Fiction
Doorinda By Dalia Truskinovskaya A fantasy tale of a harried Russian woman who suddenly has the power to right many wrongs. Fiction
Lie Until Midnight By Olga Larionova A woman tells herself she will tell her husband she is leaving him, after midnight. But what if midnight never comes? Fiction
Jubilee-200 By Kir Bulychev It is the 200th anniversary of an attempt to humanize apes, with surprising effect... Fiction
The Exam By Sergei Drugal A 1979 story about an institute that teaches its students to care for the environment and which breed trans-ape-humans. Fiction
