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Elena had just turned twenty-three—a milestone which, in their small provincial town, was considered the boundary between carefree youth and a settled, orderly life. Friends, neighbors, and the aunts at the market all felt obliged to inquire about suitors and, with sighs, hint that it was high time to think seriously about such things, or […]

A country lout—uncouth and crude—whose idea of good manners seemed to begin and end with not smacking too loudly. His life was laughably primitive: by day he hauled some kind of goods around in his battered car, and night after night he sat glued to his computer, from which came explosions and the clatter of […]

“Soon we’ll get to the finishing work. It’s almost done,” my husband said to me that evening as we were getting ready for bed. “So that means the renovation is next, and that’s it?” I rubbed cream into my hands, working it into my fingers and wrists. “Yes. Hard to believe, right?” Arkady settled in […]

The crisp autumn air was thick and prickly. Alina, wrapped in a light coat, walked out of the office center she had considered her second home just an hour earlier. Now it was just a glass monster that had spat her out onto the roadside of life. In her ears still rang Arkady Petrovich’s nasty, […]

In the farthest, darkest corner of the municipal animal shelter—where even the light from the fluorescent lamps seemed to fall grudgingly and thin—there lay, curled up on a thin, worn blanket, a dog. A German Shepherd—once, no doubt, strong and stately, and now a ghost of former might. His thick coat, once the pride of […]

It happened in August of last year. A warm, salty breeze from the sea caressed the fishermen’s faces, and the sun, still unwearied by summer, played with shimmering reflections on the water. The pier in the bay was ordinary—old planks, the creak of ropes, the smell of seaweed and brine. Every day began and ended […]

Deep in the Kaluga land, where forests whisper fairy tales and rivers weave silver patterns, lay the forgotten village of Sinegorye. Its streets, like old bones, had dried under the sun of time. The youth had long since flowed away into the cities, like water through cracks, leaving behind only elderly widows—those whose hearts still […]

Marina drew a deep breath, feeling her heart beat just a little faster than usual. She adjusted the sleeve of her dark-blue silk dress—it hugged her figure like a second skin, tracing every line with refined elegance. In the mirror looked back a woman striving to be faultless not only in appearance, but in her […]