Dear friends, today I present to you the novel by Russian Soviet prose writer, poet, translator, fantasist, journalist, and frontline correspondent Vadim Shefner - "Sister of Sorrow". Excerpt from the novel: "I said goodbye to Veranda, got on the tram, and headed to Vasilievsky Island. But upon getting off the tram, I didn't go straight home. On days when something unpleasant happened, I liked to wander the streets - it made me feel better. The city was my old friend, and it always helped me in its own quiet way. It didn't interfere with my sorrows - it silently took [...]

Dear friends, let me introduce you to Gustave Aimard - a French writer, author of adventure novels, one of the classics of the western genre. For all who love historical suspenseful prose in the style of Dean Reed or Fenimore Cooper. An excerpt from Gustave Aimard's novel "Sacramenta". The stranger headed towards where our friends were sitting, casually nodded to them, and took a seat on the opposite side of the table. Without wasting a moment, he began to rap his fist on the table, intending to attract the attention of the drowsy owner. The latter woke up and, reluctantly [...]

Some circumstances of Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov's birth, as well as information about his parents, have remained somewhat unclear, giving rise to numerous rumors and legends. Yuri Andropov wrote in his questionnaires that he was born on June 15, 1914, at Nagutskaya Station in the Stavropol Province. Nowadays, this village is Solu-Dmitrisvskoye in the Andropovsky District. According to his closest assistant, Kryuchkov, Andropov was actually born a year later. Yuri Vladimirovich added a year to himself to be accepted into a technical school that offered scholarships. Interestingly, Kryuchkov's words seem to be a legend, as an authentic birth certificate issued to [...]

The March literary salon was dedicated to the cycle of stories by I. Bunin, "Dark Alleys." It was not accidental that after discussing Nabokov's works, we shifted to Bunin. These two prominent figures in classical Russian literature were creative rivals. While Nabokov was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize, Bunin was the one who received it. Initially, the relationship between Bunin and Nabokov wasn't so hostile. Their correspondence was quite amicable. In the 1920s, Bunin was a living embodiment of Russian literature for young writers. They started corresponding after Nabokov's father, who was acquainted with Bunin, asked him to review [...]