The short classic, already covered in this podcast in English, but now read in Russian. A great starter story for new language learners. Or a timeless classic for those who speak Russian fluently, or even natively.

This reading pairs well with our sister website, LanguageThroughLiterature, where the story is spelled out in Russian, but every word is clickable for translation and pronunciation support — https://languagethroughliterature.com/?open=tolsty

A lot happens in this segment. This is the first podcast where we host a guest presenter on our podcast - Tom Besinger, a Russian Literature enthusiast who reached out to us and shared a tool he developed for language learners to read Russian in the original. He explain his site, called LanguageThroughLiterature and even shows how it works. Hint: It features Chekhov stories quite prominently and all our readings are connected to the equivalent entries on this site. LanguageThroughLiterature uses the Imperial Russian ranking system to gamify the learning experience, so we discuss the table of ranks and their modern equivalents. This leads us in to discuss the story "Fat and Thin", to pick apart the caricatured humor in the way the thin man reacts upon learning the high rank of the fat man.

Here is a link to the LanguageThroughLiterature site: https://languagethroughliterature.com/

A lighthearted humoresque telling us about a short encounter between two high school friends after many years of adult life. They recognize each other at a train station and are pleasantly surprised. But when they find out their ranks in the civil service, suddenly the jovial mood takes a turn!

A lighthearted humoresque telling us about a short encounter between two high school friends after many years of adult life. They recognize each other at a train station and are pleasantly surprised. But when they find out their ranks in the civil service, suddenly the jovial mood takes a turn!

A remarkable story of a love that fails to take place. An idle landscape artist, who sees everything through a big-picture lens, a strict older sister acting as father figure while virtue signaling at the artist's expense, a baby sister and her mother who are acolytes of the artist, all set in a beautiful country landscape worthy of the brought to life by Chekhov's pen. The story follows a very Chekhovian path where the protagonists don't act on their desires, we see a lot of symbolism, prognostication and innuendo, but not a lot of action. The fable at the end summarizes the setting nicely.

Professor Burry and Lev Lesokhin hold a debrief about Chekhov's famous story, Ward No 6. A far-ranging discussion, commenting on the bleak nature of the landscape offered by Chekhov and the fragility of sanity, especially among thinking people thrown into the vulgar herd of a grey, provincial existence. The commentary weaves through parallels to modern corporate life, the breaking point of Nietzsche, and the philosophical musings of a somewhat-Chekhovian medical practitioner. If this story affected you, either by its dim humor or frightening conclusions, tune in to find some resonance in this discussion.

How thin the line between craziness and sanity. How oppressive the world around us, especially for those with a delicate form of intelligence surrounded by boorish, brash, foolish people who don't appreciate education, manners, and punctiliousness. When self-promotion and self-preservation kick in, all bets are off. This longish short story by Chekhov explores the meatgrinder that faces delicate, educated men marooned in a dusty, provincial town. Oppressed by the sea of filth and ignorance, they drown in a system that inadvertently envelops these sensitive souls, without specific malice or intent. It just gradually happens through no specific fault of their own.

Despite moments of mirth in the description of the town and the ambience, the story is fundamentally depressing and shows how brutal our brutish existence can become.

Another amazing caricature by Chekhov. This time, the empathy dial is turned up to 11 and we get to see the results. The Darling is a woman whose rapturous devotion and need for meaning from relationships has a stroke of familiarity to all of us. Professor Alex Burry and Lev Lesokhin discuss this wonderful tale about a woman who does so much, yet means so little.