The Thief

Leonov revived the psychological novel of Dostoevsky, and his early writing shows the influence of the nineteenth-century master. His popular first novel, The Badgers (1924), deals with a peasant revolt against Red Army grain collectors during the period of the New Economic Policy. The Thief (1927) portrays the psychological traumas of a former show more civil war hero. During the Stalin period, Leonov produced a number of works generally in accord with the dictates of socialist realism, such as Soviet River (1930) (also River), but still possessing unusual features and flashes of dissent from the party line. The Russian Forest (1953), featuring a conflict between proponents of conservation and of industrialization, offers an interesting commentary on aspects of Stalinism. (Bowker Author Biography) show less