Seven Lesser-Known Soviet-era Stories to Read as the Weather Grows Colder

From samizdat to Soviet realism, these less popular works will give you a deeper glimpse into a time that is truly not distant from today.

Many typewriters produced in the Soviet Union and owned by businesses had to be registered to the KGB by submitting a typewritten example of its font. This “fingerprinting” allowed documents to be traced back to the exact typewriter it was composed on.¹

Works like The Master and Margarita and Doctor Zhivago immediately come to the forefront of one’s mind when one thinks of Soviet literature. The names of Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn are most associated with this subgenre of twentieth century literature, whose secretly distributed works were shrouded from the eyes of the KGB [Комитет государственной безопасности (Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti), or Committee for State Security]. These covertly typewritten and shared works of fiction and journalism belong to a genre called samizdat (самиздат), meaning “self-publishing” [сам- (sam-), meaning “self”; -издать (-izdat’), meaning “to publish”].

The samizdat publications are perhaps the former Soviet Union’s most popular and read works today because of its clandestine nature. The idea of “banned books” has its allure in the literary niche of the world, which gives books like 1984 and Brave New World its status of surviving and triumphing the parties that censor it. However, other stories that were published and permitted to be distributed within the Soviet Union also provide interesting insight into the lives of Russian citizens, from revolutionaries to dissidents. From works of optimism to works of criticism, here are seven lesser-known books published by Soviet authors and expatriates to broaden and deepen your knowledge of the USSR.

The Knifegrinder, by Kazimir Malevich (1913)

1. Cancer Ward, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1967)

This Bantam mass market paperback edition of Cancer Ward was printed when Solzhenitsyn was still alive, and the USSR still existed

“A man dies from a tumour, so how can a country survive with growths like labour camps and exiles?” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Cancer Ward

Beginning this diverse list with a familiar name, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward is a semi-autobiographical work. The events of the story are heavily based on the author’s experience of exile in Kazakhstan and treatment of his advanced cancer. The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center website describes the cancer tissue as a seminoma², which is a type of tumor that most frequently develops in testicular tissue; thus, it is likely he suffered from testicular cancer. Thankfully, he survived this malignancy and utilized it to write this insightful story.

Cancer Ward follows a wide cast of convalescents and cancer patients. It takes place in the 1950s, right after the death of Stalin. Opening on a Soviet official’s diagnosis of lymphoma on his neck and panning to the affairs and struggles of other patients in the ward, the narrator ultimately zeroes in on a perpetual exile named Oleg Kostoglotov. Kostoglotov parallels Solzhenitsyn’s life in several ways, as they are both exiles and sufferers of seminoma growths. He constantly ponders about moral dilemmas and questions about life, such as on whether life is worth living without drive, on the ethics of forcing treatment on those who do not want to undergo it, and on the faultiness of communist ideology in the USSR.

“‘You think that while we’re working toward communism the privileges some have over others ought to be increased, do you? You mean that to become equal we must first become unequal, is that right? You call that dialectics, do you?’” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Cancer Ward

This novel criticizes government bureaucracy, the Stalinist purges, exile, and fabricated reports, among many other imperative topics. Solzhenitsyn has a talent for writing a unique and wide cast of characters, which is also exhibited in his other works, like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The First Circle. The plot is also insightful of earlier X-ray technology and cancer treatment, as well as the Doctors’ Plot, which was Stalin’s last purge.

2. Quiet Flows the Don, by Mikhail Sholokhov (1932)

This Dent paperback edition, edited by Brian Murphy, contains all four parts of Quiet Flows the Don

"Only the one who knows exactly what he is fighting for and believes in his cause wins." Mikhail Sholokhov, Quiet Flows the Don

Quiet Flows the Don is perhaps the longest work on this list. It contains four parts, but many publishers only print up to three of the parts. It is easily the longest book in this list, with 1362 pages. It has been compared to War and Peace for both its length and contents. This book is great for fans of Leo Tolstoy, or for those that enjoy lengthy works that allow one to deeply, emotionally invest in the characters of the story.

The story follows the Melekhovs, a family of Don Cossacks, throughout numerous wars in the early twentieth century. Cossacks are a group of eastern Slavic—especially Russian—Orthodox Christians, which encompasses several autonomous settlements. The River Don is a very large river that flows into the Sea of Azov, which feeds into the Black Sea. The Don Cossacks are a large group that settled along the bottom half of the river, who possessed a strong military presence.

The River Don (Дон)

Grigory Melekhov, the second son, serves in WWI, the Russian Revolution, and the Russian Civil War. During the Revolution, Russians often fell into one of two groups: the (pro-)Bolshevik Red Army, or the anti-Bolshevik White Army. Various characters are killed by both fronts, and Grigory switches between parties multiple times. The story is a tragedy that describes the impact of war and political strife on the Don Cossacks, and one can find parallels to other historical epics.

“The flower of Cossack manhood left its homeland and perished out there amid the slaughter, the lice and the horror.” Mikhail Sholokhov, Quiet Flows the Don

Quiet Flows the Don faced mixed reception. Sholokhov’s authorship was questioned by some authors, namely Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, but this accusation has been disproven. Otherwise, the story was read by communists and non-communists alike, with it being mentioned in the Chinese short story, “The Young Newcomer in the Organizational Department” by Wang Meng, to emphasize just how quickly a character could read.

“Lin weighed the book in his hand, ‘What do you mean? I can get through this in an evening. It only took me a week to finish all four volumes of And Quiet Flows the Don. Nothing to it!’” Wang Meng, The Butterfly and Other Stories

It is a modern epic worth your time. Do not let its length dissuade you. A good book should make you wish it was double the page length, no matter how long.

3. Virgin Soil Upturned, by Mikhail Sholokhov (1960)

This older Penguin edition of Virgin Soil Upturned features another painting by Kazimir Malevich, titled The Woodcutter (1912). It was also printed when Sholokhov was still alive!

“‘The past has overgrown the past.’” Mikhail Sholokhov, Virgin Soil Upturned

This is one of Sholokhov’s far lesser-known works, and it is more of a Soviet realist story than Quiet Flows the Don. The plot revolves around the collectivization of farms in rural Russia. This was a widespread practice imposed onto farmers in the early years of the Soviet Union, where many farmers were forced to collectivize under Stalin’s first Five Year Plan. Collective farms were called kolkhoz (колхо́з), which, like the word samizdat, is a portmanteau of kollektívnoye khozyáystvo (коллективное хозяйство). Many of its theoretic principles were overlooked in practice, especially the principle of voluntary membership. The title may be a reference to Ivan Turgenev’s Virgin Soil.

A photograph of kolkhoz farmers

The story follows the highs and lows of Cossack and peasant agricultural collectivization. Soviet realist works tend to portray hardship in the face of change, and the collectivization of private farmers into one apparatus is a drastic change. The farmers are moved onto the Gremyachy Collective Farm. In the story, the collectivization effort is led by a communist named Siemion Davidov. Various characters push back against the collectivization movement, especially kulaks, or peasants that possessed a few more assets than other peasants (eight or more acres). Many efforts are made to undermine it, including a planned uprising. This story is much shorter in comparison to Sholokhov’s magnum opus, at 375 pages.

A lot can be understood and deciphered about the Soviet collectivization movement and agricultural efforts within this book. Its themes of labor and betrayal are reminiscent of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Orwell’s Animal Farm.

4. We the Living, by Ayn Rand (1936)

This Signet edition of We the Living is one of the few publishers of today that print books in the same dimensions as older mass market paperbacks

“‘We’ is the slogan of the future.” Ayn Rand, We the Living

Ayn Rand is best known for her Objectivist philosophy or for her two largest works, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. These works eclipse her debut novel, We the Living, which borrows its material from Rand’s early life in Saint Petersburg. She, amongst thousands of college-age children of Bourgeois parents, was expelled from her university for her background. Her father was a pharmacist. Fortunately, protests against this decision led to many of those students, including Rand, being reinstated and allowed to graduate.³ In a letter to a Ms. Diane Schaefer, Ayn Rand describes this student “purge” in a letter that is very relevant to the story:

“My primary source is myself. I graduated from the University of Leningrad and had to fill one of those questionnaires myself. This “purge” of Soviet universities took place in the spring of 1924. It was done under the slogan of ‘We will not educate our class enemies.’ Thousands of young people were expelled from schools all over the country and were denied an education, in payment for the ‘sins’ of their ancestors.” Ayn Rand, to Diane Schaefer⁴

If you think it is unfair that financial aid is determined by your parents’ income, imagine being expelled from your university for that same reason.

We the Living follows Kira Argounova, a young woman who defies the expectations of both her family and the State by studying to become an engineer for the craft itself. Her wealthier family had to adjust to a new life in Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) after her father’s textile factory was nationalized, seizing their source of income. Outside of school, she encounters Leo Kovalensky, whom she admires and falls in love with for his hardened exterior and rebellious attitude towards the government. They enter a relationship that is fraught with hardship. She is dismissed from both the Technological Institute she studies at and her job, leaving her destitute and scrounging for any kind of pay. When Leo contracts tuberculosis and needs to convalesce in Crimea, Kira feels compelled to extort the funds from her friend and classmate, Andrei Taganov, by engaging in a second relationship with him. Leo recovers, but he is a changed man with far less concern for risk. He engages in a dangerous operation of smuggling and selling goods, a lucrative but perilous pursuit. Meanwhile, her father attempts to open and operate a shop to support the family, but this only puts the family in a more precarious position under the Party. Both Leo and her family experience staggering financial and emotional decline, while crimes of necessity are rampant in the wilting city of Petrograd.

“What’s a citizen? Only a brick and of no use unless cemented to other bricks just like it.” Ayn Rand, We the Living

While I do not approve of affairs, We the Living is an engaging tragedy. The love affair for money is similar to that of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Its greatest theme is the dissolution of morality under dire conditions. Rand does a fantastic job of describing the political and economic climate of Petrograd. She describes the underground trade of “speculation”, which is the punishable act of privately selling goods for profit. The book also describes Soviet cultural references that are mentioned in other works. She writes of the “Hey, little apple, where are you rolling?” song (“Yablochko”) and the Primus stove, which are also mentioned in Mikhail Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog.

It truly is a worthwhile work about the USSR in its fatal youth. Even if you’ve heard plenty of criticisms against the author, give it a try without any preconceived notions. Her education in cinema translates into cinematic stories.

5. The Case of Comrade Tulayev, by Victor Serge (1950)

The NYRB edition of The Case of Comrade Tulayev features a photograph of Serge himself

“Perhaps it is a very good thing that we cannot wholly rule our minds and that they force on us ideas and images which we would ignobly prefer to dismiss; thus truth makes its way in spite of egotism and unconsciousness.” Victor Serge, The Case of Comrade Tulayev

Though written by a Russian author, The Case of Comrade Tulayev was originally written in French. Victor Serge was born to two Russian exiles in Brussels; he passed away a Russian exile in Mexico City. He had been exiled to Paris and Vichy before he was pressured to flee from occupied France to Mexico. He was in correspondence with George Orwell, where he confessed that he feared meeting the same demise as Leon Trotsky, whom he admired.⁵ A friend of Trotsky was a foe of Stalin. Trotsky was exiled to Mexico, where a few attempts on his life were made by covert Stalinist attackers. In the last assassination attempt against him, he was bludgeoned in the skull by an ice axe, which did not kill him immediately. He remained conscious long enough to fight back and tell authorities not to kill the perpetrator so that he may be questioned, before collapsing from his grave injuries and passing away the following day. Thankfully, Serge did not prophesy his own gruesome assassination; he passed away from a heart attack at the age of 57.

The Case of Comrade Tulayev is about the Great Purge, also referred to as the Great Terror of 1937. Joseph Stalin consolidated power as the Communist Party General Secretary by eliminating thousands of dissenters and perceived opposition through execution and exile. Comrade Tulayev is promptly shot dead, setting the precedence for a domino effect of accusation and persecution. The State exploits this public affair to carry out the indictments of various characters, who are pegged as suspects. The net casted ensnares several victims, none of which are truly apprehended to avenge Tulayev. They vary in belief and background but are united by the same bleak fate. Stalin did not care about justice for the deaths of government officials like Comrade Tulayev, but about the elimination of class enemies.

The theme of Party betrayal against its own members, especially the old Bolsheviks, is also explored in Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, so those who enjoyed that story would enjoy this one.

6. Kolyma Stories, by Varlam Shalamov (1980)

Kolyma Stories is also translated as Kolyma Tales

“Tragedy is not deep and sharp if it can be shared with friend.” Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Stories

Varlam Shalamov’s history in the Soviet Gulag system is far more extensive than this 734-page volume of very short stories about life within the labor camps. He served a total of seventeen years in the prison system between correctional labor and forced labor in different mines and camps. He toiled in the metal mines of Kolyma, a gelid region in the northeast corner of Siberia. His sentence was prolonged by different charges, which was detrimental to his health. One of these charges was under Article 58, which sentenced “counterrevolutionary” offenders to five to ten years of hard labor. Towards the end of his imprisonment, debilitated by sickness, he worked as a paramedic in slightly more favorable conditions. He fortunately lived a long, though fragile life, passing away at the age of 74. He had spent nearly a quarter of his lifetime in the gulags.

“My writing is no more about camps that St-Exupéry's is about the sky or Melville's, about the sea. My stories are basically advice to an individual on how to act in a crowd... [To be] not just further to the left than the left, but also more real than reality itself. For blood to be true and nameless.” Varlam Shalamov⁶

Shalamov captures hundreds of brief snapshots of the lives of gulag prisoners. He describes the privation, the destitution, and the flickering flame of humanity as the oxygen depletes. The stories recount the abject conditions the prisoners lived in, which pushed them towards inhumanity. Soldiers kill and subjugate prisoners in power trips; prisoners aren’t moved by the death of their fellowmen. His work was praised by Boris Pasternak and László Krasznahorkai. A few of his short stories are available for free on the website shalamov.ru.

“Physical force becomes moral force.” Varlam Shalamov, Kolyma Stories

Gulag prisoners working manual labor at a Kolyma mine

When asked about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Slavoj Žižek dismissed his works and instead recommended and praised Varlam Shalamov. This video can be watched on YouTube: Slavoj Žižek on Soviet Literature. Kolyma Stories paints a composite image of life in the gulag dubbed “the land of white death” with a mosaic of small, poignant stories.

7. Cement, by Fyodor Vasilievich Gladkov (1925)

The Northwestern University Press reprints many Eastern European stories

“The machine was functioning at full speed and the protests and anger of the citizens did no more than help grease the wheels.” Fyodor Gladkov, Cement

Fyodor Gladkov’s literary career was successful in the USSR not only as an author, but also as a correspondent, editor, and secretary. He was one of the first to enter the Soviet literary canon for his stories, which set the precedence for the Soviet realist genre. Subsequent works by other socialist realists modeled his story of encountering and surmounting opposition.

Cement was upheld as the gold standard for Soviet realism for its depiction of economic transition and potholes on the road to progress. The protagonist, Gleb Chumalov, returns from his three-year tenure in the Red Army to a changed world. His wife, Dasha, had become an active Party member and placed their daughter in the Children’s Home to be raised. He wishes to piece together what happened in his absence that molded her into the resilient, proactive leader she is today. He is tasked with revitalizing and reorganizing the local cement factory, and the laborers contribute to reupholster the decrepit building. Numerous roadblocks are evident, as there is a human toll in the nationalization efforts; Cossacks attempt to undermine the committee. Some of the members are purged. Still, Gleb tries to hold steadfast to the opening of the cement factory, pushing through with optimism.

Laborers in a Soviet cement factory

Cement puts the spotlight on factory nationalization, and readers can discern the heavy struggles and pushback between the lines. It criticizes abuse of power to bolster oneself with taxpayer money. It leads one to wonder just how much should be sacrificed in the name of progress, and how much blood gets shed every time the State proposes a new project, movement, or program.

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The oldest story on this list is only 99 years old. The presence of the Soviet Union is considered distant history by many of those who were born after its fall, but those who weren’t around to witness it should not disregard it in their minds. Many former citizens of communist nations are alive today, and they may be as close by as a few doors away. These stories, which all vary in message and degrees of approval or disapproval, all had the opportunity to be immortalized through the printing press. However, the stories of many of the former citizens of the USSR only exist through word of mouth. This is why I can only describe these works as lesser known, because it is the stories of the everyman that are obscure. If you encounter someone who comes from this background, take the time to ask about their background. You may learn a lot about the living history of the Soviet Union.

Please consider subscribing to my page for book reviews, reading lists, and translated excerpts of Italian and French literature, thank you!

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Bibliography:

1. Mikoyan, Sergo. “Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1991.” Studies in Intelligence, vol. 45, no. 5, 2001, www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/Eroding-the-Soviet-Culture.pdf.

2. “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center — Timeline.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center, www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/timeline.

3. Words of Veterans. “Ayn Rand: From Literary Luminary and Libertarian Legacy.” Words of Veterans, 30 Jan. 2024, www.wordsofveterans.com/ayn-rand-from-literary-luminary-and-libertarian-legacy/#:~:text=Ayn%E2%80%99s%20academic%20journey%20was%20hindered%20when%20she%2C%20along.

4. “To Diane Schaefer, a Fan [Letter 538] - AynRand.org.” AynRand.org, 27 Oct. 2022, aynrand.org/archives/letters/letter-538/.

5. Hurst, L. J. “Victor Serge.” The Orwell Society, 10 Jan. 2021, orwellsociety.com/victor-serge/.

6. “Varlam Shalamov.” Shalamov.ru, shalamov.ru/en/.

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