# The 12 Greatest Modern Russian-Language Short Story Collections

> Biting Soviet satire, tender domestic miniatures and surreal post-modern fables all jostle for space here, spanning emigre wit to homegrown experiment. Where do you stand?

*By YPB Team · Published June 21, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-12-greatest-modern-russian-language-short-story-collections*

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## Current results (3 votes)

1. **There Once Lived a Woman...** — 66.67% (2 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's acclaimed collection of scary fairy tales steeped in Russian dread.
2. **The Compromise** — 33.33% (1 votes · score 763/1000)
   Dovlatov's bitterly comic collection drawn from his years as a Soviet newspaper journalist.
3. **There Once Lived a Girl...** — 0% (0 votes · score 560/1000)
   Petrushevskaya's companion volume of unflinching love stories from Soviet and post-Soviet life.
4. **A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia** — 0% (0 votes · score 485/1000)
   Pelevin's psychedelic, metaphysical stories blending myth, satire and post-Soviet absurdity.
5. **The Suitcase** — 0% (0 votes · score 485/1000)
   Sergei Dovlatov's wryly funny linked stories, each built around an object he smuggled out of the USSR.
6. **White Walls** — 0% (0 votes · score 397/1000)
   Tatyana Tolstaya's collected stories of memory, childhood and faded Russian grandeur.
7. **The Zone** — 0% (0 votes · score 397/1000)
   Dovlatov's stark, mordant stories drawn from his time as a prison-camp guard.
8. **Calligraphy Lesson** — 0% (0 votes · score 291/1000)
   Mikhail Shishkin's collected stories, dense and lyrical meditations on language and exile.
9. **Sonechka** — 0% (0 votes · score 291/1000)
   Lyudmila Ulitskaya's tender, humane novella-and-stories about a bookish woman's quiet life.
10. **On the Golden Porch** — 0% (0 votes · score 291/1000)
   Tolstaya's luminous debut collection that announced one of Russia's finest prose stylists.
11. **The Blue Lantern** — 0% (0 votes · score 162/1000)
   Victor Pelevin's prize-winning debut collection of surreal, philosophical short fiction.
12. **Ours: A Russian Family Album** — 0% (0 votes · score 162/1000)
   Dovlatov's affectionate linked stories chronicling three generations of his eccentric family.

Tags: books, russia, fiction, authors