He joins forces with Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman who has returned to his hometown to find a cache of missing jewels which were hidden in some chairs that have been appropriated by the Soviet authorities. The search for the bejeweled chairs takes these unlikely heroes from the provinces to Moscow to the wilds of Soviet Georgia and the Trans-caucasus mountains; on their quest they encounter a wide variety of characters: from opportunistic Soviet bureaucrats to aging survivors of the prerevolutionary propertied classes, each one more selfish, venal, and ineffective than the one before.

    Chevengur is a massive series of satirical scenes from Soviet life during the New Economic Policy instituted by Lenin in the 1920s, the story of the efforts of provincial builders of Communism, but in their grotesque Utopia, Cheka murders are the only thing efficiently organized.

    "The Quiet Don") is 4-volume epic novel by Russian writer Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov. The 1st three volumes were written from 1925 to '32 & published in the Soviet magazine October in 1928–32. The 4th volume was finished in 1940. The English translation of the 1st three volumes appeared under this title in 1934. The novel is considered one of the most significant works of Russian literature in the 20th century. It depicts the lives & struggles of Don Cossacks during WWI, the Russian Revolution & Russian Civil War. In 1965, Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The authorship of the novel is contested by some literary critics & historians, who believe it wasn't entirely written by Sholokhov. However, following the discovery of the manuscript, the consensus is that the work is, in fact, Sholokhov’s.

    At the story's centre is a family, Grandfather (an ornithologist), grandmother and grandchild living in a corner house in Sivtsey Vrazhek and it is through their experiences and those of their circle that we glimpse the surrounding momentous events. It was not the author's intention to fashion an abstract historical sweep but rather to focus on the experiences of individuals (and even some of those from the animal kingdom). For Osorgin, nature is a more powerful force in life than the solipsistic beliefs of humankind. At the heart of 'A Corner House in Moscow' is the portrait of the coming-of-age granddaughter, Tanyusha, and her development as an individual in spite of the surrounding chaos. Indeed, a host of memorable characters grace the novel including Stolnikov, the young university graduate who volunteers in 1914, becomes an officer and wins the St George Cross but ultimately loses both his arms and legs to an artillery shell. In the hospital he became known as 'the trunk'. 'The doctors said: "A miracle. Just look at him. There's nature for you."' Written in very short chapters, the wealth of the novel is in the vignettes of individuals and incidences. Cumulatively, they combine to affirm life over death and individuals over ideology.Mikhail Osorgin was born in 1878 into the landed gentry. He studied law at Moscow State University. After joining the Party of Social Revolutionaries and participating in the revolution of 1905; Osorgin fled Russia and eventually spent ten years in exile, mostly in Italy, where he earned a living as a journalist. Returning to Russia in 1916, he wrote mainly for socialist newspapers but was arrested by the Cheka in 1919. Although released through international pressure, in 1922 he was expelled by Lenin from Russia. He died in exile in France in 1942.

    In the years of relative autonomy that followed, a wide-ranging debate took place that raised issues of vital importance for Ukrainian culture. What was to be the character of Ukrainian literature? How would it be affected by the cultural values of the past? What would be its relations with Russian literature? How would the Revolution affect the production of new literary works? More than any other figure, Mykola Khvylovy, dominated this debate, which came to be known as the Literary Discussion. He argued in his pamphlets that Ukrainian literature should take an independent path, abandoning its former reliance on Russian models and seeking inspiration from European sources. His outspoken advocacy of this course soon brought him into conflict with Stalin's regime and drove him to suicide in 1933. After Khvylovy's death, his works were banned in the Soviet Union, and the name of this most prominent Ukrainian prose writer of the post-revolutionary years was systematically expunged from the record books. The issues that he raised have, however, survived both him and his antagonists. This volume represents the first English-language collection of his polemical writings.

    "Left Behind" is another of her recollections of the last years of the Romanovs' lives, and her own personal memoir of the uncertain and fearful live she spent in Siberia from 1917-1919."Danger and hardship and the fact of having led a real working life with all that this entails have made me richer by giving me a fuller understanding of my fellows and by helping me to appreciate the point of view of other classes of society. If I have seen humanity at its worst-cruelty, hatred, and murder all surging in a chaos of untrammelled passion - I have also seen it at its best-kindness, unselfishness, and real charity.This I will always bear in mind when I remember my Siberian wanderings and my last year in my own country."Read the book online for free here: http://alexanderpalace.org/leftbehind...