'No matter what, you cannot change human nature', exclaims a soldier in the final story of this collection, 'even under socialism'. Apricot Jam and Other Stories presents a series of astonishing portraits of Russian life before, during and after Soviet rule. In 'The New Generation', a professor promotes a student purely out of good will. Years later, the same professor finds himself arrested and, in a striking twist of fate, his student becomes his interrogator. In 'Nastenka', two young women with the same name lead routine, ordered lives — until the Revolution exacts radical change on them both. With an unforgettable cast of displaced family members, military commanders and imprisoned activists, these stories play out the moral dilemmas and ideological conflicts that defined Russia in the twentieth century.