Although I am hardly of a scientific mind (as least not in this league), I am an administrative assistant for the Research Center this man works in. World renowned for his work, many people carry around his writings like a Bible. Very comprehensive and authoritative.

Fr. Alexander Elchaninov(1881-1934) was a genuine Russian priest to the backbone. A simple childlike ascetic and at same time a thoroughly educated man which this book show. With a background as a teacher and member of the intellectual elitè of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg for a decade(1900-10) he knew personally many of those who came to form a "revival" of religion and philosophy of the time. But he was of different material. He soon gave up teaching, fled to France in the 1920's and stayed there until his pre-mature repose of a complicated ulcer in 1934.

It's an odd book this. Small notes, cards, papers, parts of manuscripts for books he never finished - all this was collected by his loving wife Tamara and published after his death. It's more like a big collection of notes and ideas the priest jotted down on pieces of paper in between his enormous workload as spiritual father for many, many emigré Russians in France. This is not Ernest Hemingways France - the moveable feast, but quite another picture. Elchaninovs France is seldom on the sunny side of the street. But spiritually it's inspiring.

Thomas Merton once wrote in his diary that he was at his best when he wrote short filosofical or religious comments on a piece of paper, than when he wrote even his most popular books. Fr. Alexander never came around to write any books, the workload being too heavy and the time too short, but his notes are thought-rendering and close to Mertons diaries. And one can read clearly out of this book that he loved and treasured his vocation.

The minuses, but also in it's own way the pluses, is of course the briefness of Fr. Alexanders thoughts and reflection about his ministry and spirtuality, and lack of thorough descriptions of the enviroment he lived in. But still one can feel his warmth of heart and some few larger sections that covers at least to a certain degree some of his experiences.

Sip this cream in small portions.

Just watched this play at the State Academic Childrens Theatre, now called the Globus, in Novosibirsk, Russia. Can't wait to read it again (this time in English...)

P.S. Somebody needs to fix the Author's Name

Surname: Ostrovskii

Given name: Aleksandr

Patronymic: Nikolaevich

While Nabokov's version is a very literal translation of Pushkin's epic poem, Sir Charles Johnston attempts to emulates the original spirit of the piece by maintaining the original epic poem's rhyme scheme. An admirable, well-executed undertaking!

Alexander Solzhenitsyn edited a powerful book that dramatically impacted my life in my thinking about how nations are transformed. While it was published in 1974 (renewed in 1981) and obviously is now out of print, for several of the essays, this book is worth searching for.

It should be noted that Solzhenitsyn is much more well thought of in the West than in Russia today. Even though he returned to live in Moscow, Russians generally feel he left the country to profit on his message, so he is not accorded the same kind of respect given to other dissidents that remained.

Still, there are powerful messages here. Personally, the most impacting was Solzhenitsyn's chapter "Repentance and the Self-Limitation in the Life of Nations" and Igor Shafarevich's "Separation or Reconciliation? The Nationalities Question..." In these chapters the authors suggest that national "repentance" is a key aspect to any kind meaningful social change. The search for sins begins in ourselves and progresses upward on behalf of the nation. He says, nations "are suceptible to all moral feelings.. including repentance" (p. 109). The nation is "mystically welded together" in this way. He further points to history to show the nature of Russian character in "penitental movements" as part of the national character that must be reclaimed to transform society.

The message of the book is that national transformations must occur at all levels but be built on a spiritual foundation. It offers a critical view of the roles of the church, socialism and personal conscience as obstacles or conduits for change.

While the social and political nature of Russia had dramatically entered upheaval for thepast 11 years (25 years after these essays were originally penned), the messages are still relevant for Russia today and equally applicable in many respects for our own country as well.

I read this book several times. I appreciated who Alexander Pushkin was as a poet and a person. He wrote about serfdom in Russia and said things that no one would dare say in public. He had been exiled as a result of his poems. The saddest part of the book was his death in 1837. ... I enjoyed this book very much. It offered humor, strong sexual situations, drama and history. If you appreciate the works of this brilliant man, the voice of the Russian people, then you'll love this book!

The "Little Tragedies" are four thematically related one-act plays which Pushkin wrote during his extremely productive stay on his country estate in the fall of 1830. The Miserly Knight is about the conflicts between the title character and his profligate son, who have very different but equally misguided visions of knightly honor. Mozart and Salieri portrays Salieri as a hardworking but uninspired student of music driven to murder by his jealousy of Mozart's genius. In The Stone Guest, Don Juan attempts to conquer the heart of Dona Anna, who he has earlier made a widow, but the title character, a statue of Dona Anna's deceased husband, endeavors to thwart Don Juan's hopes. Finally, A Feast During the Plague is an adaptation of a scene from a now-obscure English play in which a plague survivor struggles with the conflict between his sense of community with the deceased (who include his wife and mother) and his desire to live as happy a life as possible given the circumstances.

The approach of the plays is extremely interesting. Each is very concise and intense, focussing on the main character at a moment when he must make an important choice, and in each case the choice the protagonist makes results in one fashion or another in the destruction of at least a part of himself. Though Pushkin didn't write all that much drama (if I'm not mistaken his only other completed dramatic work is the considerably more orthodox Boris Godunov) and for that matter seldom set his works outside of Russia (all four of these plays are set in western Europe), he seems very much in his element here, and while these pieces aren't particularly multifaceted, they are sufficiently gripping that they really deserve more attention than they tend to get. In this edition (which appears to be the only edition in print in English), translator Nancy Anderson provides a detailed critical essay for each of the plays as well as a general introduction and a discussion of translation issues, and I found each of her essays to be strong and helpful. It's unfortunate that the Little Tragedies had been out-of-print until the release of this volume, and Anderson has done us a substantial service by making these innovative and exciting plays available again to the general English-speaking audience.

When we get annoyed at Solzhenitsyn's lack of insight in contemporary politics (for instance, when he applauds the Russian intervention in Chechnya), we can turn back to his depictions of life in the Soviet work camps and delight in the fact that he used to be different (when the ruling was an enemy suiting his conservative and slavophile ideas, as one is tempted to add).

'The Love-Girl and the Innocent' is a brilliant play about the inhuman world of the camps, that have their own rules, and where nothing of the world outside matters. The 'Innocent' is a newly arrived prisoner, who still bears idealism and is reluctant to adopt the camp techniques of survival. His love for Lyuba, one of the many women forced by circumstances to sell themselves for privileges and rations, tempts him to compromise with himself and betray his moral and emotional loyalties.

this book explains several topics of this classical subjet in a modern way. It begins whit a brieffly introduction to the physic problem, in order to introduce the mathematical problem.

A very eloquent way of identifying the relationship between literature and social responsibility. Even more impressive is the way Solzhenitsyn connects literature, art and writing to a greater spiritual force work in the universe. This speech reinforces the power and strength of the written word. It elevates literature to its rightful place as facilitator of goodwill among people and my belief that there is no better nourishment for the soul that a good book.