'Selected Stories' from Anton Chekhov Review: Short stories that detail Soviet Russian culture

I have heard that Russian literature is often quite profound. Deep in emotion and often reflecting the society of both Soviet and post-Soviet eras. It comes as quite a surprise to most given the lack of discussion that surrounds Russian authors in the west, mostly due to Russia's stereotype of being a cold, uninteresting place full of gopniks and decay.

While I don't have much experience in reading Russian literature, I have seen quite a few films that detail Russian life, where while it is often quite bleak and the emotions seem cold, there's often a very human nature to the reflection and events that take place within them. Where the focus seems to be one that is fully aware of life in Russia, where history has not been kind, but has certainly shaped the society into what it is today. I felt this frequently when reading the short stories of Anton Chekhov, where each story, some as short as two pages, had something to tell me about Russian life.

It is the simplicity in Chekhov's short stories that makes them so appealing: each line has a significant impact on the story, providing some type of context that leads to its final page in which a conclusion is met. These stories are often focuses on life and the people and their mindset within Soviet times, featuring elements of both empathy and a lack of it in his characters. One of my favourite short stories, for example, detailed the exploitation of the poor. Titled "A Nincompoop", the story is short, but covers how the rich would often exploit those beneath them, with very little resistance. The poor would have wages cut more and more, no matter how insulting, they'd never fight back.

This story was just one page long, yet it pulls you in from the start, we witness the greed of the powerful, and the manipulation of the desperate as they refuse to rise above this exploitation and demand better standards of pay. Speaking of the desperation of those that no matter how exploited, were happy to be given anything at all. The ability to provide such depth in such few words is a breath of fresh air to me, where I'm typically used to lengthy, very detailed writings from other authors. Especially when my usual preferences are non-fiction and science-fiction.

That is to still recognise that Chekhov's writing, while these stories are translated into English from Russian, are very much descriptive when necessary. He describes his characters with such distinct features that makes them easy to imagine, particularly using elements of class to convey their features, referring to character's faces as "wasted", or a character's eyes as "haggard". In one story, he even compares a man's facial hair to that of a lynx. The way he describes people is certainly very engaging, and shows a very different aspect of time and culture from the west.

These short stories detail the Russian land under communism, during the height of Soviet times. There's a lot of greed displayed in the characters of the stories, which is highlighted due to the greed created by communist control, but I found it more interesting how often the aspect of community was displayed; there's frequent events and characters which display the sense of belonging and community as they share emotions and objects. The people understood the power of community and sharing their possessions with others. We see the importance of empathy and love in a society that's relatively void of it due to the hardships these people face under communist ruling.

Even in times of desperation, there's evidence that people still maintained good values as people, but there's also acknowledgement of the contradictions of people. One particular story displayed the ways in which people are very much happy to frequently take and accept money from someone, no matter how much or what it results in for the person handing the money over. Though once people discover where that money is coming from, suddenly they hold strong emotions and disgust for it. I found this simple story of contradiction to be really engaging in particular. It detailed the ways in which people forever expect to take from one another, but never really care for what impact it has on others.

The greed and selfish nature of those who forever take and never give is considered to be far worse than the actions of a thief that steals in order to give. It's incredibly interesting to see this perspective of a thief, someone of such good nature and wanting to help others despite their own actions. It's interesting to see the idea that people who do not share that idea of community and only care for themselves are worse members of society than those who steal.

We also see the desperation of people that use love as a method of coping, to escape poverty and find stability in life despite having no interest in marriage at all. We see how this life becomes appealing to the average person despite it not actually being one they'd like to pursue. The idea of financial success and a life that is stable takes reign over such important life-changing decisions. While this is seen elsewhere in the world, particularly in the past, Chekhov utilises the concept in his stories to portray the contrast between love as a strong bond in which people support each other, to a method of survival.

Chekhov's abiltiy to write such detailed short stories stems from an ability to portray reality under events that are most certainly witnessed by himself, or through the influences of stories from others. There's an admiration for culture and life in each story, where it details the good and the bad that people face. There's a strength here in that each story is certainly one you can imagine taking place, regardless of the time period.

At times, these stories are mostly just conversations between people. Dialogue of thoughts and context behind actions. There's such little worldbuilding necessary when the focus is entirely on people's actions and emotions, with depth provided through their thoughts. It's very creative, and certainly impressive to see such real narratives told under such small numbers of words.

Much like the introduction to this post states: these stories are deep and rather profound. Holding a magnifying glass at people and their ways of thought, and how their environment can influence their behaviour.