Christmas Miracles

“Christmas Miracles” is an anthology of Russian Christmas “shrovetide” stories from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. This is serious literature addressed to everyone, regardless of gender, age, and social standing. The collection includes works by F. M. Dostoevsky, N. S. Leskov, A. P. Chekhov, A. I. Kuprin, I. A. Bunin, I. S. Shmelev… Let the inquisitive “Who needs it, my scanty bread?” read the stories by Teleshev and Poznyakov printed in this anthology. And the doubter “Won’t my showy charity once a year be forced and false?” can look for an answer from other great names in our anthology (for example, to Saltykov-Shchedrin with his story “The Christmas Tree”). Try to start doing good—and the artificiality will surely disappear. A Christmas story is also encouragement for poor people. No wonder Kuprin, in the stories included here, accompanies his assurances about the authenticity of the events described and gives the surnames of our predecessors in charity—composer Rubinstein and surgeon Pirogov. Yes, a Christmas story can sometimes be painfully sentimental. But it is a sentimentality that neither Bunin nor Dostoevsky were ashamed of…