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Modern Russian Literature

Lectures and Reading in English

	Required Reading Andei Bely - Selections from Petersburg: Selections in The Viking Portable 20th Century Russian Reader. Recommended Andrei Bely Petersburg - Full text in Russian Short Biography of Andrei Bely Bely's Biography from the Encyclopedia of Soviet Writers N. A. Berdyaev (Berdiaev) An Astral Novel (Reflections regarding A. Bely's Novel "Petersburg") [PDF] The World of the Novel "Petersburg" by Andrei Bely. An article by Eva Maliti, Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences,Konventná 13, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia Party Bombs and Sardine Tins, or Petersburg: the Crux of Russian Modernism Russian Modernism Timeline Decembrist Square: St Petersburg, Russia Scroll down for information on the Bronze Horseman Constructing the City: Petersburg by Andrei Bely and the Development of the Twentieth Century Montage by Nataliya Mateboer ( PDF document, Acrobat reader required) The Texture of the Retina: Intertwining Patterns of Perception in the City. On Andrei Bely’s Petersburg and Ingo Schulze’s 33 Moments of Happiness by Katalin Teller Bely and The Mongols: Geopolitical Visions in Andrey Bely’s Petersburg by Thomas Edward and Sandys Bamforth ( PDF document, Acrobat reader required) The City as Dialectic: Andrei Bely’s Creative Consciousness, its Nietzschean Influence, and the Urban Centre in Petersburg by Sandra Joy Russell from Central Michigan University "Silver Age" City (Turn-of-the-Century St. Petersburg) Background and a Virtual Tour Andrei Bely's "Petersburg" by Solzhenitsyn - In Russian
	Required Reading Vladimir Mayakovsky - A Cloud in Trousers - Bilingual Edition - English translation number 2 - George Reavey transl. Vladimir Mayakovsky - Order No. 2 To the Army of the Arts - Bilingual Edition - George Reavey transl. Vladimir Mayakovsky - At the Top of my Voice - Bilingual Edition - George Reavey transl. Recommended Mayakovsky reads "Voenno-Morskaia liubov'" MP3 Format From Street to Street, read by Lili Brik -In Russian. MP3 Format A Brief explanation of Futurism Futurist Manifestos A Slap in the face of Public Taste A futurist manifesto War and Revolution in Russia 1914 - 1921 By Dr Jonathan Smele from BBC Literature and Revolution - Futurism by Leon Trotsky Mayakovsky's Biography Mayakovsky Timeline with some nice images Mayakovsky's Public Posters Mayakovsky Art page from MoMA Mayakovsky's The Lady and the Hooligan (1918) Articles about Mayakovsky - In Russian Mayakovsky scholarship - In Russian "The stone skin of the monument": Mayakovsky, Dissent and Popular Culture in the Soviet Union - an article by Chantal Sundaram from Toronto Slavic Quarterly
	Required Reading Isaac Babel - The Red Cavalry Stories and "The Story of My Dovecote," "In the Basement", "The Awakening" and "Digrasso" all in The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel. From the Red Cavalry "Death of Dolgushov" - In English Recommended The Red Cavalry Stories - In Russian "The Story of My Dovecote," "In the Basement", "The Awakening" and "Digrasso" - In Russian Gregory Fredin's Babel page Isaak Babel - Biography Isaak Babel - Biography page NPR Interview with Nathalie Babel Brown discusses the career and death of her father, Russian short story writer Isaac Babel Real Player Required Effects and Causes by James Wood - A review article of Isaac Babel's Complete works in the New Republic The Russian Revolutions of 1917; The Russian Civil War Everything about Babel -criticism collection - In Russian
	Required Reading Evgeny Zamyatin - "The Cave" in The Viking Portable 20th Century Russian Reader Recommended The Cave in Russian Yevgeny Zamyatin - A Brief Biography Yevgeny Zamyatin - A Brief Literary Biography Please note that when this page refers to Zamyatin's novel "My", they are actually discussing "We". (My is the Russian title of We.) The New Economic Policy - NEP Russia under Lenin and Stalin.1921-1939. The NEP Period. 1921-1928
	Required Reading Mikhail Zoshchenko - "Crisis", "The Bathhouse", "The Adventures of an Ape" All the stories in one file - .pdf file, Sydney Monas transl.Acrobat Reader Required or read the entire collection here Excerpts From a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), 14 August 1946 Adobe PDF Acrobat reader required - Sydney Monas transl. Recommended Crisis - In Russian The Bathhouse - In Russian A resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), 14 August 1946 - Full text In Russian (Zhdanov speech) "Rasspiska" - The only known voice recording of Zoschenko reading his own work - In Russian. MP3 format
	Required Reading Yuri Olesha - Envy - in The Viking Portable 20th Century Russian Reader Recommended Envy - In Russian - In PDF format Acrobat Reader required. Text is Courtesy of http://bookz.ru/ Envy - in Russian; this site is for those whose Russian skills could use some help. Just click on an unfamiliar word and the English translation will appear at the bottom. A Brief Biography of Yuri Olesha
Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky (Abram Tertz) (1925-1997).	Required Reading Abram Tertz - "Pkhenz" in The Viking Portable 20th Century Russian Reader Recommended Pkhenz in Russian in PDF Acrobat Reader Required. Text is Courtesy of http://www.belousenko.com/wr_Tertz.htm What is Socialist Realism by Sinyavsky/Tertz - Full text in Russian Soviet Writers' Appeal for the Release of Sinyavsky and Daniel - English 1965 Documents from the Central Committee of Communist party the Daniel-Sinyavsky trial (in Russian ) Andrei Sinyavsky ( Abram Tertz) - Obituary from Independent, The (London) , Feb 27, 1997 by Jeanne Vronskaya Writing in the Margins: In Praise of Emigration - An article on Sinyavsky from the Toronto Slavic Quarterly by Prof. Catharine Theimer Nepomnyashchy The Soviet Novel and the Western - An article by Prof. David Goldfarb
	Required Reading Vladimir Nabokov - Pnin Recommended Vladimir Nabokov - Pnin. Full text in Russian. Trans. by Sergei Il'in Vladimir Nabokov - Pnin. Full text in Russian. Trans. by B. Nosik A Resolved Discord (Pnin) by Gennady Barabtarlo
	Required Reading Mikhail Sholokhov - And Quiet Flows the Don (vol l) (Vintage Paperback) Recommended Quiet Don - In Russian; this site is for those whose Russian skills could use some help. Just click on an unfamiliar word and the English translation will appear at the bottom. Quiet Don - In Russian A Brief Biography of Mikhail Sholokhov The Nobel Prize in Literature 1965 Presentation Speech by Anders Österling, Member of the Swedish Academy
	Required Reading Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita. (the Burgin/O'Connor Ardis edition) Recommended Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bukgakov. Full text in Russian Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bukgakov. Full text in English. tr. Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bukgakov. Full text in English. tr. Michael Glenny Maps for Master and Magarita Look at the rest of this site. It is very useful. The myth of Goethe's Faust in The Master and Margarita. An article by Anita McCreath, University of South Africa "The Bacchae and The Master and Margarita," Elementa, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1996), 129-42 PDF File, Acrobat reader required "Bulgakov's Master and Margarita: Masking the Supernatural and the Secret Police," Russian Language Journal, Vol. 38, Nos. 129-30 (1984), 115-131 PDF File, Acrobat reader required
	Required Reading Anna Akhmatova - "Requiem" Judith Hemschemeyer and D.M.Thomas translations. Recommended Poetry of Anna Akhmatova - In English. A different translation of Requiem may be found here. Requiem - In Russian You can find a printer friendly Pdf file here Acrobat reader required Representations of Grief in Akhmatova’s Requiem and Pushkin’s the Bronze Horseman by Hillary Smith
	Required Reading Alexander Solzhenitsyn - "Matriona's Home" in The Viking Portable 20th Century Russian Reader Recommended Matriona's Home - In Russian Aleksander Solzhenitsyn Nobel Lecture Aleksander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn from the Nobel Prize Internet Archive homepage Solzhenitsyn Page - Brief biography: (C) Andrew Kingsley, links A World Split Apart: Commencement Address Delivered At Harvard University, June 8, 1978 By Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn