We’ve got two posts on the blog this week as it’s something of a holiday around here. What am I talking about? Why Russian Christmas of course. Still unsure? Check out the following post on why there’s two Christmas days in Russia (С Рождеством!).

Most years, I don’t really do much to celebrate ‘Russian Christmas’ other than text my family a merry Christmas, but this year I thought I’d do what I always do and celebrate with a book review. Enter A Very Russian Christmas: The Greatest Russian Holiday Stories of All Time from New Vessel Press.

Twelve Christmas themed short stories by eight esteemed Russian authors, this book is a veritable Who’s Who of Russian Literature. Writers like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekhov (a lot of Chekhov) may be household names but this was actually my first chance to read them despite a long fascination with anything even remotely Russian. And so far I’ve only listed the big three, which meant there were five other names in the table of contents which I didn’t know at all: Mikhail Zoshchenko, Vladimir Korolenko, Klaudia Lukashevich, Maxim Gorky and Nadezhda Buchinskaya nee Lokhvitskaya under the (much simpler) pseudonym of Teffi.

This relatively slim volume (147 pages) represents the “best” of nearly a hundred years of Russian Christmas stories with the oldest story — Dostoevsky’s “A Christmas Tree and a Wedding” — published in 1848, and the newest — Mikhail Zoshchenko’s “The New Year’s Tree” — published in 1939.

It’s a wide span to be sure, and the order in which the tales are presented is somewhat confusing. The New Year’s Tree is first in the line up, and as the newest tale, it might be expected that the order would be reverse-chronological but that isn’t the case. The next tale was published in 1887, and from there it is 1848, 1894, 1883 etc.

It’s clear that some of the stories are meant to be read together. For instance, Dostoevsky’s The Little Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree is quite a depressing story in which a little boy witnesses his mother freeze to death before he strikes out into the city, is ignored by nearly everyone who might help him, and proceeds to freeze to death himself. The next tale is Maxim Gorky’s Christmas Phantoms in which an author is haunted by all of the souls he’s frozen to death in his stories, and when read after Dostoevsky, a clear rebuttal to the other author’s work.

But the rest of the tales are less obviously related. Zoshchenko’s My Last Christmas kind of makes sense to place at the end because of the title, but wouldn’t The New Year’s Tree have been more fitting since it reflects how the Christmas traditions were moved to the New Year’s holiday as the Soviets came into power?

Also, there are three Chekhov stories, two Zoshchenkos, and two Dostoevsky tales. I wonder if the odd reading order was more to give some variety rather than clumping the author’s works together as may have been the case if a strict chronological order was followed.

In any case, I generally found these Christmas stories to be an enjoyable read though I don’t think any were particularly filled “with good cheer” as our own Christmas songs so often proclaim. But all are filled with little details about Russian Christmas traditions and practices, little sayings, colloquialisms and proverbs — ya know, the good stuff — which I found absolutely fascinating.

Perhaps my favorite story was Vladimir Korolenko’s Makar’s Dream (though another story in which someone freezes to death). It was by far the most surreal with the main character, Makar, being transported to a kind of in-between realm where he is confronted by important moments from his past (somewhat reminiscent of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol) and eventually must stand a sort of trial before being admitted into heaven or serving penance in a kind of Sisyphian hell. Interestingly enough, though the priests within the story are all Orthodox Christians, Makar’s judgement is determined by the weight of his deeds on an enormous set of scales, not unlike the Ancient Egyptian scales of Ma’at.

There is little context given for any of the stories within this volume, but a short author bio at the back describes Korolenko as an exiled revolutionary who traveled the globe and wrote Without Language, “– the first book, written in Russian, to deal with Russians in America”. I think there will likely be more Korolenko in my future.

Give ‘A Very Russian Christmas‘ a Read?

It’s a bit niche to be sure, but if you’re interested in Russian Literature, or in anything having to do with Christmas and history, I’d say this is an interesting book to have read and to keep on your shelf. If you’re a complete newbie to the material, as I was, you may find a bit of struggle in attempting to find the right context, and to place the stories as they relate to “Literature” with a capital L, but as an insight into Russian holiday tradition I don’t know if there’s a better entry point (though maybe there are more modern books on the topic).

I for one, am certainly feeling inspired to read some more works by these authors which is likely the ultimate goal of the anthology.

That’s all I have for this time. Has anyone read this anthology before? Any of the authors I mentioned? What’s your favorite ‘classic’ Russian Literature? As always leave your thoughts in the comments. Looking forward to talking about this one with you all.

С Рождеством!