This book, first published in 1959, contains passages with commentary from 12 of the most important Soviet authors. They are written in varying styles, and are a key introduction to the Russian language used in the Soviet period, an analysis of the language used by its leading writers, and a snapshot of life in Russia at the time.

1. Aleksey N. Tolstoy Revolutionary Scenes 1.1. February Riots in Petrograd 1.2. Death of a Commissar 1.3. Petrograd after the October Revolution 2. Mikhail Sholokhov The Hanging of Podtyolkov 3. Leonid Leonov The Grain Hoarders 4. Isaak Babel 4.1. An Unorthodox Cavalry Manoeuvre 4.2. My First Goose 5. Boris Pil'nyak NEP in the Provinces 6. Panteleymon Romanov An Overcrowded Flat 7. Mikhail Sholokhov Dispossession of a Kulak Household 8. Valentin Katayev The Cement-Mixing Record 9. Viktor Nekrasov In Stalingrad 10. Galina Nikolayeva Death of Stalin 11. Vladimir Dudintsev An Inventor in Trouble 12. Aleksey N. Tolstoy The First Men on Mars 13. Mikhail Zoshchenko The Poker 14. Mikhail Bulgakov The Giant Snakes 15. Il'ya Il'f and Yevgeny Petrov A Voluntary Lunatic