Books for Kids

Written by one of the greatest literary minds the world has ever known, this ambitious novel is the story of Prince Myshkin, an almost comically innocent Christ-figure who is Dostoyevsky's vision of salvation for a cynical Russia. Learn More

Wonderful book includes Russian folk fairy tales, nursery rhymes and verses for little ones. Learn More

To Alexei Tolstoy (1883-1945) history, in addition to an artistic theme, was also a means of studying life. The novel "Peter the Great" was preceded by various works on this theme (Peters Day, On the Rack) which depict the formative stages of the authors conception of history. Tolstoy published the first part of the novel in 1929, the second in 1934, working on the third part until the day of his death, yet leaving it unfinished.The novel is dynamic. It shows the epoch and Peter himself, a true national hero of Russia and creator of the Russian state, in all their magnificence and multiplicity, in all their contradictions. The author describes the transformation of Russia into a mighty power. The novel is imbued with pride for Russia and faith in the Russian people. This profoundly realistic work has greatly influenced Soviet writers working in the field of history. Tolstoy won the Stalin Prize for this novel. Learn More

Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished man who formulates and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker seemingly for her money, thereby solving his financial problems and at the same time, ridding the world of an evil parasite. Raskolnikov also strives to be an extraordinary being, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose. Learn More

The Diary's radical format was matched by the extreme range of its contents. In a single frame it incorporated an astonishing variety of material: short stories; humorous sketches; reports on sensational crimes; historical predictions; portraits of famous people; autobiographical pieces; and plans for stories, some of which were never written while others appeared in the Diary itself. Learn More

In 1864, just prior to the years in which he wrote his greatest novels — Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) penned the darkly fascinating Notes from the Underground. Its nameless hero is a profoundly alienated individual in whose brooding self-analysis there is a search for the true and the good in a world of relative values and few absolutes. Moreover, the novel introduces themes — moral, religious, political and social — that dominated Dostoyevsky's later works. Notes from the Underground, then, aside from its own compelling qualities, offers readers an ideal introduction to the creative imagination, profundity and uncanny psychological penetration of one of the most influential novelists of the nineteenth century. Learn More

Accused of political subversion as a young man, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was sentenced to four years of hard labor at a Siberian prison camp — a horrifying experience from which he developed this astounding semi-autobiographical memoir of a man condemned to ten years of servitude for murdering his wife. As with a number of the author's other works, this profoundly influential novel brilliantly explores his characters' thoughts while probing the depths of the human soul. Describing in relentless detail the physical and mental suffering of the convicts, Dostoyevsky's character never loses faith in human qualities and the goodness of man. A haunting and remarkable work filled with wonder and resignation, The Notes from a Dead House ranks among the Russian novelist's greatest masterpieces. Of this powerful autobiographical novel, Tolstoy wrote, "I know no better book in all modern literature." Learn More

This is an excellent Russian retelling of the Pinocchio stories by Alexei Tolstoy. The book is in extra-large format. With expressive color illustrations by Leonid Vladimirsky. Learn More

Tolstoy's adaptation of Pinnochio - a wooden puppet searches for the key that will open the door to heaven. Tolstoy had the book as a child but then lost, so each time he retold the story to his friends it was slightly different and contained some adventures that were not in the original book at all. Learn More

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