The Penultimate Truth

"The Penultimate Truth" is the first part of an engaging trilogy about life in the famous Tolstoy House. The story unfolds around four Petersburg families, each with its own fate, its own difficulties, and upheavals. The characters of "The Penultimate Truth" are not perfect—so it’s easy to recognize yourself, your parents, your loved ones and friends, your dreams and fears, your interests and secrets, even your clothes and manner of speech. Elena Kolina’s signature style combines beautiful language, wit, and subtle psychology, helping you survive even the most painful memories and not-so-worthy actions with a smile. What’s interesting is that Elena Kolina herself lives in the Tolstoy House, where the action of "The Penultimate Truth" takes place. This is what they call the income house of Count M. P. Tolstoy, a historic building in the central district of St. Petersburg located between Rubinstein Street and the Fontanka embankment. Over more than a hundred years since it was built, many outstanding figures of culture, science, politics lived in the house, including writer Arkady Averchenko, professor Dmitry Pozdneev, singer Eduard Khil, and many others.

Elena Kolina is the founder of the genre "Russian romantic comedy," author of the famous cycle "The Diary of a New Russian Woman." To date, 25 books by the writer have been published, many of which have been adapted for film. The total circulation is more than 500,000 copies. Kolina’s works have been translated into German, Polish, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Turkish, and other languages.

Listen to the Leningrad saga as performed brilliantly by actress Marina Lisovets.