Books

The books in the "Rereading the Classics" series contain a modern analysis of the works included in school literature programs. Spiritual, moral and religious aspects in theworks of Russian writers of the XIX–XX centuries are covered in details for the first time. The series is offered as a base of modern knowledge on Russian literature, which is necessary for passing school exams and entering any university.

This manual discusses the traditional "plots" and problems of the novel: Raskolnikov's theory, the essence of the crime, what is the hero's punishment.

Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the last episode of the "Epilogue", which refers to the "resurrection" of Raskolnikov - so far it has not been discussed enough in criticism and science.

For teachers of schools, lyceums and gymnasiums, students, high school students, applicants, specialists in philology, as well as a wide range of readers.

The book presents all the examination problems and Chemistry Olympiad problems off ered at the MSU entrance examinations for the fi ve years. For each problem the detailed solution or answer is given. The book is intended for pretenders, entering the University in chemical, biological, and medical specialty, as well as for high school students and teachers of chemistry.

This book contains a broad analysis of Old Russian literary monuments dedicated to Russian literature of the 11th — early 18th centuries. The collection is based on the work of the department of ancient Slavic literature in the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences and teachers of Moscow State University.

The book is meant for school teachers, high school students, university entrants, college students, as well as to all lovers of ancient literature.

The manual is meant for teachers and secondary school pupils, college and university undergraduate students studying Ecology. The materials of the manual can be used to assess the students’ knowledge as well as to facilitate their preparation for contests in Ecology.

The manual provides tasks on the five sections of Ecology: General ecology (Bioecology), Social ecology and Human ecology, Natural resources and their use (Environmental management), Environmental pollution (Applied ecology), and Environmental protection. The tasks are formulated as tests of different levels of complexity and various kinds (free-answer and alternative questions).

When writing the manual its authors applied their experience of teaching Ecology and developing the base of the tasks for different levels of the All-Russian contest on Ecology and ‘Lomonosov’ contest on Ecology at Lomonosov Moscow State University.

The handbook contains information on the most important phenomena of Russian history: revolutions and reforms, wars and peace treaties, public systems and political organizations, government bodies and state leaders, literary works and geographical discoveries, outstanding writers and scientists. The handbook was compiled on the basis of many years of teaching experience obtained by the author in the All-Russian Extramural School and in the School of a Young Entrepreneur at the Economics Faculty of the Moscow State University.

Information from this book is useful for studying the history of Russia and for those who are preparing for state or university entrance exams.

Books in the ‘Rereading the Classics’ series give a modern analysis of the works that form part of school literature curricula. This is the first attempt to provide a detailed insight into the spiritual, moral and religious aspects of the art of 19th and 20th century Russian writers. The series is offered as the basis of modern knowledge about Russian literature, which is necessary for high school students to pass school-leaving examinations and to gain admission to any institution of higher learning. This book is the first monographic study of the famous modern prose writer and publicist's works. The fact that Georgi Vladimov is a ‘living classic’ is not contested by anybody. But what book sparkled this belief? Some will say it was the ‘The General and His Army’ — the best Russian novel that received the Booker Prize in 1995. Others will remember ‘Three Minutes of Silence’ — the last book before the author was forced into silence and exile. Some will say that it was ‘Faithful Ruslan’, because it made the author leave the ranks of Soviet writers, and in the end the USSR as well. Many, however, felt his first novel, ‘The Great Ore,’ already conveyed the mastership of the writer.

For school, lyceums and gymnasium teachers, high school and college students, university entrants, philology specialists.

Books in the ‘Rereading the Classics’ series give a modern analysis of the works that form part of school literature curricula. This is the first attempt to provide a detailed insight into the spiritual, moral and religious aspects of the art of 19th and 20th century Russian writers. The series is offered as the basis of modern knowledge about Russian literature, which is necessary for high school students to pass school-leaving examinations and to gain admission to any institution of higher learning. This textbook considers the features of A. Fet's lyrics, which stand at the junction of the Pushkin era traditions and the contemporaries' future aspirations to symbolism. The author gives a large amount of material from the history of romance, elegies, and anthological poetry. The main aim of the author is to show Fet's innovative essence, his individual contribution to the development of Russian and world lyric poetry.

For high school students, university entrants, college students, teachers, philologists, and for all lovers of poetry.

Books in the ‘Rereading the Classics’ series give a modern analysis of the works that form part of school literature curricula. This is the first attempt to provide a detailed insight into the spiritual, moral and religious aspects of the art of 19th and 20th century Russian writers. The series is offered as the basis of modern knowledge about Russian literature, which is necessary for high school students to pass school-leaving examinations and to gain admission to any institution of higher learning.

The author of this book sees his task in viewing Gorky's 1920s-1930s works in the context of Russian literature of the period and commparing it with the artistic discoveries of his great contemporaries, primarily V. Nabokov and B. Pasternak. A separate chapter is devoted to the writer's artistic world, the originality of his realism, the concept of personality, the hero and the anti-hero. The main attention is paid to the analysis of works that are part of the program for those entering the humanitarian faculties of universities.

The book is addressed primarily to high school students and university entrants. However, high school, gymnasium, lyceum teachers and philologists who study the history of the Russian 20th century literature will find it an interesting read.

The manual is devoted to the basic for the formation of mathematical thinking theme — the same equations and inequalities. The book formulates and proves the most important algebraic, trigonometric, logarithmic, hyperbolic, etc. numerical and functional identity equations and inequalities used in solving a wide range of mathematical problems, showing relationships between them. The manual contains 300 tasks of different types with solutions from the introductory assignments and samples of the Unified State Exam in which various identities and inequalities are used to perform transformations and construct necessary assessments. The book may become study support for Math lessons in high school and expand the outlook of the students. It may also be useful for homework assignments.

Recommended for high school students of physical, mathematical and regular schools to prepare for the higher level USE on Mathematics, olympiads and Lomonosov Moscow State University entrance exams.

The present fundamental tutorial is aimed at getting the applicants ready for the entrance examination in mathematics required for entering a number of MSU faculties. The book can also be of use to high school pupils and mathematics teachers.

The main purpose of the manual is to help applicants prepare for the entrance exam in mathematics at Moscow State University. Nowadays this exam is called DVI (Additional Entrance Test). In addition, the authors also aim to help a more in-depth study of elementary mathematics. The book is actually a problem book. The bulk of the problems are taken from the versions of entrance exams at Moscow State University and its branches. The problems are arranged by topic in order of increasing difficulty. A systematization of the types of problems encountered and methods for solving them has been carried out. Solutions to the most common problems are given in the “Answers, directions, solutions” sections. At the same time, solutions to most of the problems of the DVI of recent years are given, including the problems of 2018.

For applicants, high school students, teachers and students of preparatory departments and courses, as well as for distance learning.

Books in the ‘Rereading the Classics’ series give a modern analysis of the works that form part of school literature curricula. This is the first attempt to provide a detailed insight into the spiritual, moral and religious aspects of the art of 19th and 20th century Russian writers. The series is offered as the basis of modern knowledge about Russian literature, which is necessary to high school students to pass school-leaving examinations and to gain admission to any institution of higher learning.

The book contains the analysis of Gogol’s main works – the comedy ‘The Inspector General’ and the poem ‘Dead Souls’. It considers in detail the fate of the second volume and reveals features of Gogol's poetics, covering those aspects of the writer's biography and creativity that were rarely addressed by pre-revolutionary and Soviet literary critique: his book ‘Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends’, ‘A Trip to Jerusalem, “Trips to Optina Pustyn”. The author recreates the spiritual and moral appearance of Gogol as a writer and a person.

The book is addressed to high school students, applicants, students, teachers of literature, philologists and all those who are interested in Russian literature.

Books in the ‘Rereading the Classics’ series give a modern analysis of the works that form part of school literature curricula. This is the first attempt to provide a detailed insight into the spiritual, moral and religious aspects of the art of 19th and 20th century Russian writers. The series is offered as the basis of modern knowledge about Russian literature, which is necessary to high school students to pass school-leaving examinations and to gain admission to any institution of higher learning.

The manual analyzes the works by the greatest masters of 1960s-1990s Russian military prose who became an organic part of the current school curricula — K. Simonov, Yu. Bondarev, V. Astafyev, K. Vorobiev, G. Baklanov, V. Bogomolov. The reader will undoubtedly find it useful to get acquainted with the analysis of the short stories and novelettes by V. Nekrasov, A. Platonov, M. Sholokhov, with the process of approximating through the artistic word toward the full truth about man at war, about his courage, sorrow of loss and nobleness. Russian military prose will appear here as a very dynamic system of texts with complex interrelations, volatile narrative structures and vivid creative individualities. The book shows the interaction between war prose and the overall literary process of the 60s – 90s.

For teachers of schools, lyceums and gymnasiums, students, high school students, applicants, philologists and a wide range of readers.

The book ‘Vasily Terkin’ by A. Tvardovsky played an outstanding role during the Great Patriotic War and became, to put it in the words of a front-line soldier, an encyclopedia of the soldier's life which found place for humor that brightened up the endless trench warfare, and the harshest truth, ‘no matter how bitter it was.’ The long-time researcher of the great Russian poet’s life and work tells the story behind this ‘Book about a Soldier’, its complex fate and amazing artistic originality that is still to be fully appreciated.
For teachers of secondary and higher schools, their students, applicants and all lovers of Russian literature.

The book is dedicated to the ‘The Tale of Igor's Campaign’, one of the most famous and mysterious Russian literary monuments. Having been published in 1800 only once according to the manuscript that later burnt in the Moscow fire of 1812, ‘The Tale ...’ has constantly attracted the attention of researchers and writers and generated new interpretations for more than two centuries now. The manual examines the authenticity of the ancient Russian ‘poem’, the creation of a twelfth-century nameless scribe or an eighteenth-century mystification, and the problem of the genre nature of the work, the reflection of history in ‘The Tale ...’, obscure (‘dark’) passages and Christian elements in its text. The book is largely an overview of various modern scholarly interpretations of the monument.
For teachers of schools, lyceums and gymnasiums, students, high school students, applicants, philologists and a wide range of readers.

This original study of A.P. Chekhov's comedy ‘The Cherry Orchard’ is based on a detailed examination of exclusively primary sources — Chekhov's correspondence, memoirs and testimonies of his family and friends, a narrow and confidential social circle. In his first part - ‘The Cherry Orchard’ - ‘Anton Chekhov's Dreams’ - the author attempts to trace the accumulation of creative material, to substantiate and understand the primary sources from which the author derived his idea of writing the play, to analyze the most important circumstances of the writer's life that impacted his creative process. The second part - ‘The Cherry Orchard’ - ‘Mystification of Life’ – is in fact a scientific study of the play itself. The author presents and proves a number of hypotheses and psychological motives for the behavior of the play’s main characters, offers an original explanation of the factual aspect of the play, draws up complete and at times paradoxical psychological portraits of his characters. The third part of the book - ‘The Undisclosed Secrets of the Cherry Orchard’ (The Talk that Never Happened’ - gives the reader an opportunity to fantasize about the play and to reflect on the motives and circumstances that are not subject to scientific discussion and are merely the author’s assumptions and hypotheses.
For teachers and students of secondary and higher schools, applicants and everyone who wants to broaden their understanding of Chekhov's art outside the standard interpretation of this author that has been elaborated in the scientific and journalistic literature.

Unlike other books in this series, this book is a guidebook not just to a single work, but to all of Mayakovsky's lyrics, practically his poetry, for Mayakovsky remained a lyrist in both his civil verses and even in his big poems. Throughout the book, the author guides the reader through a complex labyrinth of bonds that Mayakovsky's lyrical poetry forms with that of his fellow poets, as well as with that of poets who seem to be worlds apart but in fact not so far away.
For teachers of schools, lyceums and gymnasiums, students, high school students, applicants, philologists and a wide range of readers.

This book is the first one to analyze all of A.А. Fet’s lyrical poems which are included in the Education Standard for secondary schools and in the sysllabus for MSU applicants: ‘The cat is singing, his eyes screwed up ...’, ‘As a wavy cloud ...’, ‘Whispers, timid breathing ...’, ‘This morning, this joy ...’, ‘The night was shining, Moonlight had filled the garden...’ and others. Each of the 14 chapters offers a review of one of these poems. The author analyses the motive organization, figurative structure, vocabulary, features of their sound patterns, metrics and rhythms of Fet’s texts.
For teachers of schools, gymnasiums and lyceums, high school students, university entrants, students and teachers of philology and all admirers of Russian literary classics.

The manual offers a systemic chapter-by-chapter analysis of the novel’s text, explains words and names that have fallen out of use, interprets the author's position, characteristics of his narration and style and compares the first and second volumes of the novel. He also references the works that Nikolay Gogol was working on while writing his ‘Dead Souls’ - ‘Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends’ and ‘The Author's Confession’.

For teachers of schools, gymnasiums and lyceums, high school students, university entrants, students, university and college teachers and all admirers of Russian literary classics.

The commentary on the tragedy is based on the interlinear translation of the variant of the text, which was published in the First Folio (1623). The text of the word-for-word translation is compared with the 20th century Soviet translations, which were marked by censorship and aesthetic restrictions so inherent in Soviet literary criticism. The guidebook aims to bring the reader closer to the understanding of Shakespeare's phraseology, the idioms and jokes of his comic characters that live in Verona but speak the language of Elizabethan London.

Andrei Platonov’s novella ‘The Pit Foundation’, one of the most unusual events in Russian literature, is almost journalistically saturated with the realities of that time and is a striking documentary source of Russia’s 20th century dramatic history. The guide to ‘The Pit Foundation’ provides an easy-to-understand and fascinating account about the factual underpinnings of this complex allegorical work; the philosophical subtext of the novella, the literary parallels of its plot, composition and main characters.

For teachers of schools, lyceums and gymnasiums; students, high school students, university entrants, specialists in philology and a wide range of readers.

‘Chevengur’ occupies a central place in Andrei Platonov’s work. The guidebook offers an artistic story behind the novel against the backdrop of the 1920s socio-political situation; it provides a complete philological analysis of the work, showing its links with the historical and cultural context (mythological, religious, philosophical, political and scientific reminiscences including those related to the works of 19th and 20th century Russian literature). It examines the linguostylistic features of Platonov’s text – its specific collocational characteristics and connotational nuances.
For teachers, philologists, students, applicants, high school students and a wide range of readers.

According to V.G. Belinsky, ‘Eugene Onegin’ ‘is Pushkin’s most intimate work, the most beloved child of his imagination.’ There have been numerous researchers’ commentaries on Pushkin's novel in verse. The author of this book takes into account literary scholars’ commentaries and interpretations. At the same time, the reader will find here a lot of new material that has escaped the attention of its previous researchers. The ‘slow reading’ method allows the reader to get rather extensive ideas about the genre of Pushkin’s novel in verse, the nature of its main characters and their relationship with each other. In elucidating the text of ‘Eugene Onegin’ the author successfully brings Pushkin's speech closer to the modern idiom without leaving any of the novel’s realities unexplained. To facilitate the reader's understanding of the Pushkin novel in verse, the book contains a glossary of mythological and art historian terms used in ‘Eugene Onegin.’

For school and university teachers, their students, applicants and all lovers of Russian literature.

‘The Brothers Karamazov’ is the last of the great novels by F.M. Dostoevsky, in which he put everything all he knew and understood about Russia, the world at large, the man and mankind. Externally, this novel is written in a very simple way but it contains numerous profound truths, philosophical meanings, paradoxes and prophecies. The author of the ‘Guide’ identifies and explains many of them and helps the reader see them too by navigating him through the pages of the novel and rereading them again. First, he follows its events and main characters, revealing its explicit and implicit biblical and literary quotations, philosophical and historical allusions, showing the historical context in which the novel was created, and what the writer prophesied about the future. Finally, in his other chapters, the author invites the reader to reflect together with him on the novel’s cross-cutting themes and key scenes.

For high school students and college students, teachers of schools and universities and, in general, fans of this great Russian classic.

This book offers a new reading of Alexander Pushkin’s ‘The Captain's Daughter’. The well-known literary critic Yu.M. Lotman rightly remarked: What’s happening with ‘The Captain's Daughter’ is the same as what happened to such works as Cervantes’s ‘Don Quixote’: the novel being too serious even for an adult reader, it has been transferred to the category of children’s books.’ The manual is addressed to high school students, applicants, students and teachers.