Vanka
BY ANTON P. CHEKHOV Nine-year-old Vanka Zhukov, who had been apprentice to the shoemaker Aliakhin for three months, did not go to bed the night before Christmas. He waited …
Russian Short Stories Archive
The Bet
BY ANTON P. CHEKHOV I It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was pacing from corner to corner of his study, recalling to his mind the party …
The Darling
BY ANTON P. CHEKOV Olenka, the daughter of the retired collegiate assessor Plemyanikov, was sitting on the back-door steps of her house doing nothing. It was hot, the flies …
The Signal
BY VSEVOLOD M. GARSHIN. Semyon Ivanonv was a track-walker. His hut was ten versts away from a railroad station in one direction and twelve versts away in the other. …
The Shades, A Phantasy
BY VLADIMIR G. KORLENKO I A month and two days had elapsed since the judges, amid the loud acclaim of the Athenian people, had pronounced the death sentence against …
How a Muzhik Fed Two Officials
BY M.Y. SALTYKOV Once upon a time there were two Officials. They were both empty-headed, and so they found themselves one day suddenly transported to an uninhabited isle, …
God Sees the Truth, But Wait
BY LEO N. TOLSTOY In the town of Vladimir lived a young merchant named Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov. He had two shops and a house of his own. Aksionov was …
The Christmas Tree and the Wedding
BY FIODOR M. DOSTOYEVSKY The other day I saw a wedding… But no! I would rather tell you about a Christmas tree. The wedding was superb. I liked it …
The District Doctor
BY IVAN S. TURGENEV One day in autumn on my way back from a remote part of the country I caught cold and fell ill. Fortunately the fever attacked …
The Cloak
BY NIKOLAY V. GOGOL In the department of——, but it is better not to mention the department. The touchiest things in the world are departments, regiments, courts of justice, …
The Queen of Spades
BY ALEXSANDR S. PUSHKIN I There was a card party at the rooms of Narumov of the Horse Guards. The long winter night passed away imperceptibly, and it was …