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Transformation: Russia

A young ballerina has lipstick applied to her.

Dubna Fantazia via Flickr. CC BY 2.0.

Milgrom

By Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

So the seamstress is out, and Mom must save the situation somehow, except here’s the thing: there’s no money.

Translated from Russian by Keith Gessen & Anna Summers

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The Golem in the Mirror

By Nadezhda Gorlova

I must involuntarily live in a world that the old woman has dragged back from nonexistence.

Translated from Russian by Deborah Hoffman

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None of Your Business

By Natalia Klyuchareva

His mother smiled stupidly, flapped her heavily mascaraed eyelashes, and missed the plate with her fork.

Translated from Russian by Marian Schwartz

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My Story of Chess

By Shota Iatashvili

Her hand would travel around the board, creeping up on a piece as she mumbled in a kind of trance: “J’adoube, j’adoube, j’adoube . . .”

Translated from Georgian by Elizabeth Heighway

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Arm Wrestling in Chebachinsk

By Aleksandr Chudakov

There was nothing to be surprised about: in the town of Chebachinsk there wasn’t a single man whose arm Pereplyotkin couldn’t pin to the table.

Translated from Russian by Timothy D. Sergay

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