Soviet Literature Summarized
July 20, 2011 6:43 PM   Subscribe

Sovlit.com is a very large and comprehensive site dedicated to the literature of the Soviet Union (both official and dissident), with summaries (fans of the genres might find the examples of Soviet science fiction and spy novels to be particularly interesting), biographies, and even some full translations of short stories from authors such as Isaac Babel, Vasily Grossman, Yevgeny Zamyatin, and others.
posted by a louis wain cat (10 comments total) 21 users marked this as a favorite
 
I had a paper back anthology of translated Soviet Sci-Fi and absolutely loved it. I think digging around in here will be a lot of fun! Thanks!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:24 PM on July 20, 2011


"Another CIA adventure exposed and foiled!"

A common ending to many Soviet-era spy novels!
posted by vidur at 7:35 PM on July 20, 2011


Hey, Katjusa, I think I remember that one! Was there was a guy with a machine that preserved music by turning compositions into animals, and another machine that was a sort of reversed cornucopia which turned rubbish into useful things? I was quite young when I read it and I just realised that they're political satires.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:42 PM on July 20, 2011


I had a paper back anthology of translated Soviet Sci-Fi and absolutely loved it. I think digging around in here will be a lot of fun! Thanks!

Hmm.. I remember reading one such that had some stories like:

1. Bunch of cosmonauts on an alien planet. Turns out that the planet as a whole is one being, and doesn't like these humans mucking around.

2. Bunch of cosmonauts in a space dump in response to a distress signal ("SOS"). Turns out that the distress signal was being sent by a malicious robot. One human then proceeds to give a massage (yup, really) to the robot and messes up his circuits by removing the letter "S" from the vocab, so that the distress signals now read "_O_".

Can't recall more right now.
posted by vidur at 9:22 PM on July 20, 2011


"The KGB go to Riga to question Max's mother (in the presence of two citizen-witnesses). She said Max's bad character is probably due to the influence of his father, who used to say, "Only fools need an education, smart people need money."

You must go forth and seek, Comrade Filmstar.
posted by clavdivs at 9:52 PM on July 20, 2011


"Another CIA adventure exposed and foiled!"

A common ending to many Soviet-era spy novels!


As if their American and British counterparts are any less laughable.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:52 AM on July 21, 2011


As if their American and British counterparts are any less laughable.

I am sure they are too. It's just that I don't read much of those.
posted by vidur at 12:31 PM on July 21, 2011


Like Like Like, ;

I assume everyone is aware of Dostoyevsky's 'blog' also

http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Diary-1-1873-1876/dp/0810115166
posted by mygodimissyou at 7:36 PM on July 21, 2011


I'm just curious, does this site make Soviet literature less depressing and incredibly boring?
posted by CountSpatula at 9:06 PM on July 21, 2011


The funny thing about the Cold War is that, as I alluded to upthread, it was a two-way street.

There's a reason the only Soviet cultural artifacts that made the trip West are depressing and boring and present the USSR in a tremendously bad light, and that reason is definitely not a lack of the opposite.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:17 PM on July 21, 2011


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