LibGuides: MC 332: Writers/Directors and the Soviet State (Garnett): Books & Media

Required Texts

Please refer to your course syllabus for required readings. The books below have been placed on Course Reserve at the Main Library Circulation Desk, so you are able to check them out for a few hours at a time, and then return them so that other classmates can also borrow them. Our Course Reserve process hopes to assist students who prefer not to purchase the texts. Everyday Stalinism is also available as an eBook, as linked below.

The library has many copies of these books in alternate editions, with different translators. These alternate editions are available for you to borrow for the entire 6 month checkout period. You can search the catalog by title to find them, or ask me and I would be happy to help!

Please note that books of criticism or exploration of the main texts will be shelved near them! So use the call numbers below to also find critical readings on our shelves. I am here to help find those too!

Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel (Author); Nadia Helstein (Translator - this is a different translation than listed in your syllabus)
Call Number: PG3476.B2 R4

ISBN: 0393324230

One of the great masterpieces of Russian literature, the Red Cavalry cycle retains today the shocking freshness that made Babel's reputation when the stories were first published in the 1920s. Using his own experiences as a journalist and propagandist with the Red Army during the war against Poland, Babel brings to life an astonishing cast of characters from the exuberant, violent era of early Soviet history: commissars and colonels, Cossacks and peasants, and among them the bespectacled, Jewish writer/intellectual, observing it all and trying to establish his role in the new Russia. Drawn from the acclaimed, award-winning Complete Works of Isaac Babel, this volume includes all of the Red Cavalry cycle; Babel's 1920 diary, from which the material for the fiction was drawn; and his preliminary sketches for the stories--the whole constituting a fascinating picture of a great writer turning life into art.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (Author); Diana Burgin & Katherine Tiernan O'Connor (Translators - alternate translation)
Call Number: PG3476.B78 M313

ISBN: 9780143108276

Nothing in the whole of literature compares with The Master and Margarita. One spring afternoon, the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow. Mikhail Bulgakov's fantastical, funny, and devastating satire of Soviet life combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with historical, imaginary, frightful, and wonderful characters. Written during the darkest days of Stalin's reign, and finally published in 1966 and 1967, The Master and Margarita became a literary phenomenon, signaling artistic and spiritual freedom for Russians everywhere.
Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s (PRINT) by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Call Number: HN523 .F57 1999

ISBN: 0195050002

Publication Date: 1999

Here is a pioneering account of everyday life under Stalin, written by one of our foremost authorities on modern Russian history.
Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s (eBOOK) by Sheila Fitzpatrick
ISBN: 9780198021698

Publication Date: 1999

Here is a pioneering account of everyday life under Stalin, written by a leading authority on modern Russian history.
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin; Bela Shayevich (Translator); Margaret Atwood (Introduction by)
Call Number: PG3476.Z34 M913 2021

Publication Date: 2021

The chilling dystopian novel that influenced George Orwell while he was writing 1984 with a new introduction by Margaret Atwood and an essay by Ursula Le Guin

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Other Books to Consider

Red Cavalry: A Critical Companion by Charles Rougle
Call Number: PG3476.B2 K636 1996

ISBN: 0810112132

Publication Date: 1996

This book, part of the acclaimed AATSEEL Critical Companions series, is designed to guide readers through Red Cavalry, Isaac Babel's classic series of short stories about his time with the Cossacks and the Soviet-Polish war of 1920. An introduction places Red Cavalry and its author within Russian history and literature, and essays by scholars offer opinion and analysis of Babel's method and thought.
The Writer's Divided Self in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita by Riitta H. Pittman
Call Number: PG3476.B78 M3367 1991

ISBN: 9780312061487

Publication Date: 1991
The Apocalyptic Vision of Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" by Edward E. Ericson
Call Number: PG3476.B78 M3 E7 1991

ISBN: 0773497668

Publication Date: 1991

This study takes as its premise that the novel, which is fascinating for both what it reveals and what it conceals, carries within itself a coherence of meaning. It is widely acknowledged that religious categories of understanding are necessary for a proper interpretation of the novel, but it is common to conclude that Mikhail Bulgakov's outlook is heterodox.

Tips for Searching for Books

The MSU Libraries has thousands of works of Russian literature in both Russian and English. Most works of Russian literature can be found in the PGs on the 4th floor of the East Wing, but it is a huge area to browse.

Tips for finding Russian literature in the catalog:

1. Searching the term "Russian literature" does not work! Only rarely are fictional works classed this way. Russia and fiction is a better search, but still messy.

2. Authors works are grouped together, followed by criticism and interpretation. So if you find the section of the stacks that hasThe Brothers Karamazov (hint: call number PG 3326.B7, on 4 East) you will find all of Dostoyevsky's other works, in Russian and English, followed by scholarly works interpreting Dostoyevsky's work.

3. Just interested in literary criticism? You can do a keyword search for "Dosteyevsky and criticism and interpretation." Works like a charm.