A fine example of Village Prose from the post-Stalin era, Farewell to Matyora decries the loss of the Russian peasant culture to the impersonal, soulless march of progress. Valentin Rasputin's novel of a village destroyed by anonymous technology argues that mankind can only be spiritually regenerated by returning to the old rural way of life.

This work offers an account of the Russians' 400 years of experience in Siberia. Rasputin looks at the the peculiar physical and character traits of the Siberian Russian type, and at the gap between dreams and reality that have plagued Russians in Siberia.

First published in Russian in 1974, "Live and Remember" was immediately hailed by Soviet critics as a superb if atypical example of war literature and a moving depiction of the degradation and ultimate damnation of a frontline deserter. The novel tells the story of a Siberian peasant who makes a tragic miscalculation by deserting in the last year of the war, and of the loyal wife who embraces his fate as her own.