r/RussianLiterature

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​Hoi (: while some readers agree Dostoevsky wrote The Idiot to portray a completely beautiful, Christ-like soul, comparative religious essays have long pointed out that Prince Myshkin is one of the closest literary approximations of a Zen master ever written.

​In my observation the cross-cultural ties between Russian literature and Eastern philosophy Ive noted that Myshkin perfectly embodies the Zen state of Mushin, which translates to "No-Mind."

This is not a lack of intelligence; it is a state of consciousness entirely free from personal pride, social masks, and calculating self-interest.

Because Myshkin completely lacks the defensive, plotting armor of the human ego, high society views him as a literal idiot.

In reality, his mind acts like a clear mirror, perfectly reflecting the unfiltered truth, pain, and hidden motives of everyone he meets without analyzing or judging them.

​This connection is so profound that prominent Japanese literary and cinematic adaptations of the novel have explicitly framed Myshkin’s radical compassion as the ultimate ideal of the Bodhisattva, a being who delays their own peace to absorb the suffering of others.

Even Myshkin’s epileptic auras, which he describes as moments of absolute harmony and ultimate synthesis where time stands still, read identically to classic descriptions of Satori, the sudden, flash-of-lightning awakening found in Zen practice.

​However, the novel also hits on a tragic Zen warning through Myshkin.

In Eastern philosophy, pure compassion must be balanced with absolute, practical clarity. Because Myshkin acts out of a pure, detached love that refuses to make hard, earthly choices, his presence accidentally shatters the lives of the flawed people around him. He tries to heal a broken world using pure spiritual emptiness, proving how terrifyingly difficult it is to live with a completely egoless heart in a chaotic, ego-driven reality.

​Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Does seeing Myshkin through a Zen lens of No-Mind change how you view his ultimate breakdown at the end of the novel?

Gassho,

Ok, the why has not to be strictly because of its well-written prose or any other technical feature... I'm aiming towards something like emotional connection.

https://preview.redd.it/jf0q1h937l1h1.png?width=494&format=png&auto=webp&s=229e5173fb878f9c7617550a2958e76f904fbfe1

War and Peace (and this edition in particular), since this book was my dad's last Christmas gift back then in 2021. Around that time, everything felt so vivid, so special, like, every single friendship I had, every person I used to speak with was bestowing in my life something truly delightful and meaningful. I remember reading it in winter at 7am with a nice cup of coffee besides me, and after that, a nice and cozy Russian session.

Over time, every time I pay a glance to this book, I'm transported to those marvelous mornings when everything felt right, when there were no maladies, when I thought I could one day go to Russia and meet my beloved Russian friends....

The article is essentially arguing Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita provides a radically softened, even sympathetic reinterpretation of Satan.

It pushes back against the standard Christian (and literary) image of Satan as a malicious, envy-driven enemy of God. Instead, it suggests that this “devil” figure is better understood as something closer to a well-meaning, intelligent, socially functional trickster, a figure whose actions are not driven by hatred or rebellion, but by a different moral or metaphysical orientation.

Let's keep this related to Russia, though it can include Russian literature, Russian folklore, and etc. Whether physical books, audiobooks, or ebooks. As my collection continues to grow, I decided it's time to start from the very beginning. For me, that's Russian Folk Tales from the collection of Alexander Afanasyev.

I fell in love with this book called живой и мертвый by Андрей Папирус, and I want to buy it from Ozon, but I’m not sure if it will even be delivered to the EU. I’m located in Slovakia, so I’d like to ask what the best way is to ship a book from Russia to the EU.

Should I call the support line on the website?

Is it risky to order from Ozon and just wait for the package?

Or should I find someone in Russia who could send me the book as a personal package?

This question came to my mind while I was watching the 2012 adaptation with Keira Knightley and Jude Law. The film totally fails to capture the soul of the novel, but then I remembered how I'd struggled, when reading the book, to locate its thematic centre. I loved the depth and detail of the characterisation, but what is Tolstoy actually saying with the characters? Is he even "saying" anything at all, or is the novel just describing the everyday world of the Russian aristocracy? I'd love to hear people's thoughts/opinions.

You and I love ordinary people; but we are loved because people see in us something extraordinary. I, for example, am invited everywhere as a guest, fed and given drink everywhere like a general at a wedding. My sister is indignant that she is invited everywhere simply because she is the sister of a writer.

No one wants to love the ordinary people in us. It follows from this that if tomorrow, in the eyes of our good acquaintances, we appear to be ordinary mortals, they will stop loving us and will only pity us. And that is vile. It is also vile that they love in us something that we ourselves often neither love nor respect in ourselves.

Hi! I have to do a translation project (Rus to Eng) for my degree. It is a 3000 word translation and can be on anything Russain (something which has never been translated, or smth which has been translated loads - it doesnt matter). I need help choosing a text. I was going to do Мастер и Маргарита, but I will be doing that as a disseratation the following year and cannot be examined on the same text twice.

Here are texts I cannot do for having previously written on them:

Дама с собачкой

Кроткая

Евгений Онегин

I need to try to not do texts on Chekov too as they will be something I study alongside Мастер and may be able to compare them.

I like doing Golden and Silver Age literature too. Please help with suggestions!

Here is roughly what I remember of it:

It was about the arrest of some military officer, perhaps a corporal, for the murder of a woman he was involved with. The narrator talks a lot about what a complicated case it was. At the end, according to the officer, he and the woman entered a pact where he would kill her and then he would kill himself. He kills her but can’t kill himself.

I remember the last sentences of the story being something along the lines of: “Perhaps to the Law or God I am guilty, but to her, innocent!”

I suspect it was by Turgenev, Bunin, or Chekhov, but I’m not sure about that.

I’m sorry that this isn’t much information, thank you for any help you have because this is driving me crazy!

https://preview.redd.it/1ago5ldj210h1.jpg?width=968&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e522f338270f78ded34ba9f58353d7fb9cba1086

This painting is by no means related to the book or its author, but I think it could fit for the cover
there are no longreads in this sub idk if i should write that
One of the relatively known 20th century Russian writers is Maxim Gorky; however, while the name is known, his best books clearly aren't. I used to be really interested in all that, so I wrote all of that to Wikipedia (both to the English and the Russian ones) - you can read stuff there if you want to - but English Wiki prefers Eng-lang sources, so I'll put more here than in English Wikipedia - both about his last novels and his political career - and why he wasn't really a Stalinist. If you don't know: in the 1900s, he was the most famous Russian writer, but now his reputation is compromised by the two things: by his political career, secondly, due to not all of his books being equally worthy by their quality.

His political career: in the 1900s he was an anti-Tsarist activist tied to Marxism, a friend of Lenin; he condemned the Bolsheviks in their first year in power, mostly for the political violence, and finally emigrated; after living in Fascist Italy for some time, he gradually became an admirer of the Soviet Union, and in 1930s he fully returned to Russia. In public, he became a mouthpiece for the Stalin regime, promoting the collectivization and the GULAG camps. Behind the scenes, there were various intrigues: he maintained friendships with Kamenev and Bukharin who opposed Stalin, he asked Stalin to "not close the doors to the Party" to Zinoviev, also an oppositionist, despite the hatred for him since the Civil War; he also hoped to "ease" Stalin's literary policy, sort of patroned the non-regime writers and arranged Bukharin's speech where he called Pasternak "the greatest Soviet poet", pledged to allow some political dissidents to leave the USSR. It's hard to tell to what extent Gorky "understood something" in the last months of his life, but the memoirs tell he sort of did - for example, they mention his notes in a book on the English Revolution which subtly compared its outcome to the one in Russia. Gorky's major works didn't really fit the regime needs, even though the regime didn't admit it - while the official writers praised the heroism of the Revolution, the Industrialisation and the Five Year Plans, Gorky served the regime only in his political speeches and rare short wrtitings which were instantly forgotten - the portrayal of the revolution in the major works is not heroic, and he hadn't written almost anything about the life in the USSR. His life ended with a sort of a house arrest.

Now to his books: his best-known novel is "Mother" (1906), which is still republished in English, but of which Gorky himself said that it's his worst books and which he admittedly wrote solely for maintaining the revolutionary agenda. I would recommend the novel "The Artamonov Business", it's pretty short and got positively assessed by the critics and scholars, but it's not republished in English. A bit more interesting is the cycle of short stories "Stories of 1922-1924" ("Рассказы 1922-1924 годов") - sadly, it's unknown even in Russia. Throughout his life, Gorky was known as a realist; the late stories, however, are not realist. For example, "Blue Life" ("Голубая жизнь") is a grotesque nightmare of a closed speechless person with an artistic worldview whose idill of the life of contemplation and listening to music is ruined by a demonic stranger. "The Story about the Unusual" from the same cycle has one of the ugliest portrayals of the Russian Revolution/Civil War in fiction: it's main character, a peasant who joins the Red Army and later deserts [?], is driven by obsession with "simplification" of the human kind and the reality itself and exterminating everything "unusual".

He wrote these stories and "The Artamonov Business" to "train" himself for his final work.

"The Life of Klim Samgin" it's a very complicated work and seemingly a very hard read. Gorky himself wanted it to be a thing which he would be remembered for. By its length, it's about two "War and Peaces" I think. The first volume is divided only in five chapters; the rest is just uninterrupted stream. It's written as a biography of Klim Samgin, a mediocrity with no value surrounded by characters freaky in their own ways. In his childhood, he was praised by his parents as the smartest kid, but was bullied by peers - he clings to "the smartest" label given by the parents to suppress the inferiority complex. Samgin goes through circles of various educated people of Russia, and those often has anti-regime sentiments. People around him discuss what educated people did - literature, philosophy and politics - Samgin is mostly silent to look smarter. The characters chattering about these high matters plays not the last role in the book - what makes it harder to read. Against his will, he gets into the revolutionary circles; he iternally opposes the revolution, he's afraid of losing his comfortable social status, but due to being committed to his reputation he can't simply leave. Samgin is opposed to everything around him and despises it - and since everything is presented through his POV, the revolution doesn't look heroic, and there are almost no Bolshevik characters. This is what the regime Soviet critics didn't like about the novel, but Gorky became defended by the highest authorities. The novel was supposed to end with Samgin dying in 1918, but the author didn't really know how to end it and died, leaving the book unfinished.

I really hope that Gorky's late works will be republished in English in some time - "The Life of Klim Samgin" wasn't republished since it's first and only edition in English in the 1930s, and that translation doesn't seem credible; "The Artamonov Business" was last issued last time like in the 1980s or even earlier, and not by some well known publishers like Penguin; "The Stories of 1922-1924" were never published as a book in the West, in Russia they were printed only in the academic Complete Works set. I believe that republishing late Gorky is something the NYRB Classics could do.