The Russian Forest

Leonid Leonov’s novel “Russian Forest” is the culmination of the writer’s years-long creative searches—his most complete expression of moral and aesthetic ideals.
A complex scientific and economic problem of forest use forms the backbone of the novel’s plot, and the forest is its all-encompassing hero. The writer’s great interest in the novel shown by scholars and practicing foresters revealed how vital the question posed by Leonov was—how timely it was, and how many people it truly touched.
The activities of the novel’s main hero, the scientist-forester Ivan Vikhrov, who grows trees, allow the writer to show the fullness of life of a person in socialist society—a life filled with labor and great ideals.
The image of Gratsiansky, a man with a dark past, a careerist and the direct antagonist of the moral ideals declared in the novel and embodied in the Vikhrov family—was a major creative success for a talented master of words.