Detailed reading and analysis of selected Russian writers such as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev and Anton Chekhov. Their works are compared in the light of urgent social, political, literary and philosophical questions of their day. May be repeated as topic varies. No prerequisites. May also be offered as ENGL 3300; credit will be granted in only one department. Students taking the course as RUSS 4301 read some texts in the original. Taught in English.