Russia has a rich, huge, unwieldy cultural tradition. How to engage it? This pathbreaking classroom reader was designed to respond to that challenge. The literary works selected for inclusion in this anthology introduce the core cultural and historical themes of Russian civilization. Each text has resonance throughout the arts - in Rublev's icons, Meyerhold's theater, Mousorgsky's operas, Prokofiev's symphonies, Fokine's choreography, and Kandinsky's paintings.